Leela Squared
by Wonderbee31
Summary: Crossover fiction with the Futurama and Doctor Who universes. Fry and Leela have an encounter with a wandering Time Lord, and thngs get crazier from then on. Here's the fifth chapter, and the sixth is on it way, sometime next month, if all goes well. F
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: The characters of Fry, Leela, Bender, and Nibbler are all copyrighted to Matt Groening, David X Cohen, and Fox television. The characters of The Doctor, Leela of the Sevateem, and the TARDIS are copyrighted to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The Daleks belong to the estate of the late Terry Nation. I will list some of the other characters as they appear later on (don't want to give away any surprises). This is a work of fan-fiction, and no money is being made off of it. I'm just writing this to celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest science-fiction shows in television history, as well as the opportunity to tie it together with one of the greatest animated shows in history. Enjoy this work for the fun that it is, and be on the lookout for the next part, coming soon. Cheers!  
  
P.S. As the two Leela's interact and appear more often together, I'll distinguish them by calling them the Doctor's Leela, and the other as Fry's Leela, just for simplification purposes.  
  
Leela Squared  
  
The year: 3015  
  
Fry slept, and dreamed. He dreamt about his wedding day, and how Leela had looked back then, and of the day that he had finally become more than a simple delivery boy. He saw the day when he'd finally gotten Bender to tone down his evilness just a little bit, which had meant that he'd stopped worrying about finding some of his organs missing and on the black market. He was in a good place, with friends who appreciated him for who he was, when, all of a sudden, the dream turned darker, and Fry saw something new. A tall man stood in the shadows, and he seemed to be saying something important. As Fry approached, he could see that the man was gesticulating furiously, as though what he was saying was important, a life-or-death matter. Fry concentrated harder (something he still had difficulty with), but he still couldn't make out the words. At that same moment, he noticed that giant shapes had started to form around the stranger, closing in on him. Fry concentrated harder still; he had to know! But only one word got through.  
  
Stranger: .Leela!  
  
Fry awoke with a start. The dream had become a nightmare at the last minute. He looked down, and was surprised to see Nibbler sitting beside him on the edge of the bed, looking at him with those three ever-so-bright eyes. Nibbler stared for a moment longer, and for just a second, Fry had the strangest feeling that Nibbler was smarter than he let on. Fry gazed so intently at that third eye that it startled him when Nibbler hopped up in the air. Fry saw where he was going to land, and started to tense up, even though he knew it was too late.  
  
Nibbler: Yah! Yah!  
  
The air rushed out of Fry's lungs as Nibbler landed square on his stomach. Nibbler hopped off again and waddled out the door. Fry watched him go as he struggled to catch his breath.  
  
Fry: (Gasping) When I get a hold of you I'm gonna drop kick you right through the goal post of life!  
  
Just then, he heard the one of the most wonderful sounds that he'd ever heard in his life, the voice of his wife.  
  
Leela came into the room, holding Nibbler in her arms and tickling him on the chin. Fry noticed that, even as he cooed with pleasure, he glanced over at him with what could have been a smirk.  
  
Leela: Fry! Why would you want to hurt this cute little guy, you know that Hilary and David love him to death. I know you're cute, yes you are, and oh you're so cute. Who's my cutey pie, hmm, who is it?  
  
Fry watched as Leela stroked Nibbler on his belly, and thought to himself, smiling slightly.  
  
Leela looked over at him and then stopped and looked again.  
  
Leela: Fry? Dear, what's wrong? Are you okay?  
  
Leela leaned over closer to him, and Fry smiled more broadly and waggled his eyebrows at Leela, who laughed in spite of herself.  
  
Fry: I was just having a dream, about the day we got married, and when Bender became a little less evil, you know, maybe even helping around the house and stuff. Amy got less clumsy, and she became a real engineer. Most of all, I could spend the rest of my life with the one woman that I'd loved for so long, that it was almost like trying to reach out and touch a star.  
  
Leela: (Smiling) You know Fry, you could get burned by a star if you touched it.  
  
Fry: (Grinning) Yeah, but for one glorious moment, I'd be part of it, you know?  
  
Leela leaned over and gave Fry a kiss, and after a moment dropped Nibbler and allowed the kiss to build in passion. However, before things could progress further, they heard the next great loves of their lives, which were, unfortunately, fighting as usual.  
  
Hilary: Mom! David won't give me the milk, and I want cereal. Make him stop!  
  
David: Mom, it's not my fault! Hilly hogs the cereal all the time, and I have to eat the powdered wheat-cakes. I want cereal too!  
  
Leela: (Looking up sharply) You two had better stop fighting, and start getting ready for school. We're going to leave in twenty minutes, so hurry it up.  
  
Leela turned back to her husband of nine years and looked warmly at him, before she gave him another quick kiss.  
  
Leela: Come on Fry, let's get the troops under control, and then you have to take a shower. You know we've got that meeting today with the Terallian Corporation, and you're going to have to use that charm of yours at full power if we want to get their delivery deal.  
  
Fry smiled as Leela pulled him up. He stood, and gave her a hug that took her off her feet briefly. Leela hesitated; then she reached around his neck and hugged him back.  
  
Leela: (Surprised) Hey, what's that for? Are you okay, honey?  
  
Fry looked back at her and grinned.  
  
Fry: Yeah, I just wanted you to know that I love you, and that was the best way I could think of. You know, you mean everything to me, Leela.  
  
They started to lean towards each other again, when they heard a loud CLANG! They both jerked their heads towards the noise, and then heard Hilary's voice from the kitchen.  
  
Hilary: I'm telling mom!  
  
Leela rolled her eye, and Fry let go of her. They had just started towards the kitchen, when Hilary came bursting through the door, Nibbler hot on her heels, and David bringing up the rear, all three of them talking or making noises. Hilary was a little seven-year old girl, with orange hair, highlighted with purple. She had two eyes, and her hair was straight, cut down to her shoulders, and parted in the middle. David was a more precocious five years old, and had one eye, very similar to his mother's, with hair that was more of an equal mix of purple and orange, which he parted over to one side. Fry looked at him and remembered his insistence with Leela, that if any of their children were born with one eye they wouldn't worry about covering it up, because he or she would be their child, and they would love it no matter what. Leela had agreed, albeit a little reluctantly at first, and she'd found herself more than once having to refrain from combing his hair over just enough to partly cover his eye.  
  
Hilary: Mom, David broke the pot again! I told you you'd get in trouble if you tried to cook like uncle Bender.  
  
Hilary directed this last comment at David, who was now clutching Nibbler in his arms and fighting back tears.  
  
David: Nuh-uh, Uncle Bender says I could be a better chef than him one day, all's I got to do is follow the directions that he gives me, and my cooking stuff would be great.  
  
Hilary: No it won't!  
  
David: Yes it would!  
  
There followed a few more uh-huh's and nuh-uh's, with Fry and Leela looking back and forth at the two opponents, until Leela stepped over and between them.  
  
Leela: Okay everyone, time-out!  
  
She dropped down to eye-level with Hilary.  
  
Leela: Hilly, you need to stop picking on your brother. I got picked on when I was a kid, and I hated it. Will you please try to share with him a little more? You're his older sister, and he needs you to look out for him, okay?  
  
Hilary looked down at the floor for a moment before she glanced back at her mother.  
  
Hilary: (Mumbling) Okay.  
  
Leela then turned around and got down on her knees to look at David.  
  
Leela: Davey, I know you want to be a strong boy sometimes, but you need to listen to your sister more. She loves you a lot, and she really does want to only help you, most of the time anyway. I also know you like your uncle Bender a lot, but you have to listen to your Mommy and Daddy too, okay?  
  
David: (Small voice) 'kay mama.  
  
Fry reached over and gave them both a hug, and whispered into their ears, and they perked up and ran off toward their rooms, while Leela watched them go. She turned back to Fry, who had started to look a little guilty now.  
  
Leela: Okay, give. What'd you tell them?  
  
Fry: I just said that we'd go to the park today, after they got done with their school work, and that I'd take them to the duck pond.  
  
Leela: Uh-huh. And?  
  
Fry: (Sheepishly) I said that we'd visit Grandpa Farnsworth.  
  
Leela: Fry, we probably shouldn't visit him so much; you know he's getting more senile and crotchety by the day. And he's not really their grandfather either. I guess he's more like their great, umpty-ump. cousin?  
  
Fry: Yeah, well, you know if we try to tell them that, they'll be even more confused than ever; I mean, how do you explain that their daddy is technically 1040 years old?  
  
Leela: (Sighing) Yeah, I know. Well, you get ready and clean up; I'll be back from taking the kids to school in a half-hour. Nibbler's done his business already, and I'm having it transported to the building now, so if you'd take him for a walk, that'd be great. Please, Fry?  
  
She gave Fry what she knew was her almost patented look of pleading, and Fry laughed in spite of himself.  
  
Fry: All right honey, you take the kids to school today, and I'll take Nibbler for his walk in the park, then it's my turn tomorrow to take the kids to school.  
  
Leela: Philip, tomorrow's Saturday, and the kids are going to stay with Aunt Amy tonight.  
  
Fry: But then what'll we do.ohhh.  
  
Leela looked over at him, and Fry saw the smile that had made him realize that she was one of the most beautiful women alive.  
  
Leela: That's right, we'll be alone tonight. Now, I'll see you back here in around 45 minutes.  
  
They leaned together again, and the kiss was sweet and warm.  
  
Fry: See you soon, honey.  
  
As Leela walked out to make sure that the kids were ready, Fry looked down at Nibbler.  
  
Fry: You'd better not need to go for walkies tonight, hairball, because the two of us aren't leaving this bedroom for the whole night. So there.  
  
As Fry said this, he got undressed and headed for the shower, while Nibbler stared after him.  
  
Nibbler: (To himself) Oy, why couldn't the Mighty one have been just a little smarter?  
  
There is another place and time that doesn't actually exist in any place or time. The closest anyone can come to describe it is a type of vortex, which connects to all places and all times. There are only a few living things that can survive in this hostile environment: Chronovores, eaters of time, Eternals, beings that exist in the empty wasteland of Eternity itself, and a few other races that have managed the rudiments of time- travel. That was why seeing something here was a rarity in itself, and the small blue object was even rarer. It tumbled and spun about, in one direction or another, sometimes pausing to spin in a counter clockwise movement for a bit, only to start tumbling and spinning in different directions again, moments later. A person looking at this would think that the occupants, if not dead, would have been violently ill, to say the least; that is, if the occupants lived in the same dimension as the blue box. The fact, though, was that they didn't, and no one inside the time craft had a care about what went on in the vortex outside their home.  
  
Inside the craft, the first thing that would have struck an observer was that it was enormous. Compared to the dirty and dingy small blue shell on the outside, it was an almost sparkling white, with rounded circles all along the walls, and a ceiling that seemed to stretch up to infinity. In the middle of the room, there stood a hexagonal console, with a central column that moved up and down and hummed gently in a manner that could have put a person to sleep if they were to concentrate on it. Perched on top of the column, a black top hat gently rose and fell along with it.  
  
A tallish man stood over the console, a look of concentration on his face. To look at, he seemed fairly nondescript. He was wearing well-worn clothes: a dark brown topcoat, light tan corduroy trousers, a cream-colored shirt, and plain black leather shoes. His face had some wrinkles on it, with deep laugh lines around his mouth, straight lips, and a nose that fit his face perfectly. His hair was dark brown with a sprinkling of white throughout, straight, and cut fairly short. The silent communion ended when he heard a noise behind him. He turned to the female standing there.  
  
Woman: Well, Doctor, don't you think this makes me look nice?  
  
The woman was dressed in a fairly comfortable outfit, form fitting but not too tight, allowing her to move around easily. The shirt was black and short sleeved, which showed off her hard muscular arms, while the pants were dark gray, with brown leather boots that came up to her calves. She had dark brown hair down to her shoulders, blue eyes, and a very pretty face. She looked to be somewhere in her early forties. Anyone who thought that would have been off by 120 years.  
  
Doctor: Leela, you look very lovely in that, but are you expecting trouble?  
  
Leela turned back and looked at him for a moment. How many years had she known him, one hundred and thirty now? She realized that he was actually very handsome in this incarnation, and that if she'd just now met him, she would have loved to go out with him somewhere.  
  
Leela: (Shaking her head) Doctor, in all the years that you have known me, as well as my lifetime on Gallifrey, you of all people should know that I always expect trouble.  
  
The Doctor grinned back at her and returned to his own thoughts. Even though Leela had been placed into a loom on Gallifrey, giving her her own set of regenerative life cycles, she had not lost her warrior spirit. If only her husband had survived the last great crisis, she might still be at her home in the Kwilchxz Mountains. The Doctor shook his head; there was always time for self-recrimination. Right now, he wanted to fulfill her wish, and let her have the chance to travel with him some more, though this; he felt would end sooner rather than later.  
  
Leela looked over at the Doctor, guessing somewhat correctly what was going through his mind. She knew that he still felt guilty over the Dalek invasion of time, that he'd not been able to help as he'd wanted due to his being captured and tortured by them. She understood now why so many races hated those mechanical devils. With the loss of her husband, Andred, her fury at them had been stoked into flame-like intensity, and she'd been glad to kill what had hopefully been the last of that particularly vile species. The Time-Lords had been very grateful to her, giving her the option of teaching a class on war and self-defense at the academy, and also granting her the gift of being loomed. They had probably been unprepared for the result, as she came out looking almost exactly as she had when she entered. She remembered the Doctor attributing it to her tremendous self-image, which would allow her to maintain her sense of identity much better than other time-lords, the Doctor included.  
  
Still, she knew that the Doctor would probably beat himself up over it for as long as he lived, since he always pushed himself harder than anybody could take, including himself. She also worried, as she was starting to see the sign of late regenerative depression. It had become rare for the Doctor to smile these days, and she knew that part of it was due to him nearing the end of his life cycle. The Doctor was young for a time-lord, only about 2400 years of age, but he was in his tenth regeneration, his eleventh incarnation. He only had two more regeneration's to go, before he would die the final time, and then be placed back into a loom, in order that a new time lord could be created. The way he acted these days, she knew that he was thinking of settling back on Gallifrey, and looking forward to his last few years with trepidation. Leela knew in her heart (actually, two hearts now, technically), that when that happened it would be almost the same as putting a wild animal in a cage and watching it slowly pine away.  
  
Leela: (To herself) I will not let that happen to the Doctor, not while I'm around to help him. He has meant too much to me over the years to let him drift away now.  
  
The Doctor, as he stood looking down at the console, smiled to himself. Now that Leela had been loomed, her half-time-lord physiology meant that she could broadcast her thoughts much easier than those of other humanoid races. He was glad she was with him, and hoped that she could help him get over the funk that had hung over him for the past century or so. He'd not had a traveling companion for over a hundred years, and life in the TARDIS had become lonely. After receiving the summons to Gallifrey to accompany Leela to his own house's looms, the astonishment of nearly everyone when she'd emerged virtually unchanged had made him secretly proud. Leela had come into her own at last. He'd also been delighted when she had asked to travel the universe with him once again. He knew that part of her reason for asking was so that she could become accustomed to the changes she'd gone through, and because the death of her husband had left a gap in her new hearts, one that she needed to fill in her own time.  
  
Leela walked over to the Doctor and watched as he made minute adjustments to the coordinates. She had always marveled at the way he flew his TARDIS, almost as though it was a child, and he, its father, though sometime she had the impression that it was the other way round.  
  
Leela: Where are we going, Doctor?  
  
Doctor: Well, I thought that maybe we'd take a little vacation, just get away from saving the universe, and take more of our own personal time, you might say. We'll be materializing in the Central Park of New New York City, sometime around the 30th century. A very advanced time in human history, and I don't really recall anything-horrible happening in that time or place, at least, I don't think that anything bad happened then. My memories are a little vague about that period, for some reason. Just an opportunity to get away from it all, and I can teach you some more about your new life that will help you adjust to it better.  
  
Leela smiled and placed her hand on the Doctor's coat sleeve for a moment, and he looked over at her before turning to watch a reading. Leela stepped back and observed. She'd learned the basics of TARDIS operation since she'd been on Gallifrey, but it was still wondrous to watch the Doctor as he maneuvered around the console, adjusting switches here and there. She felt the familiar slowing of the drive, and waited for the column to stop, letting them know that they had arrived. She smiled to herself. She would get the Doctor to relax for a bit; it might be just what he needed.  
  
Fry walked out the entranceway and down the steps, holding Nibbler's leash. It was going to be a cold March day. He remembered the date, and tried to remember.what had been in that play? Oh yeah, beware the Ides of March. As he walked toward Central Park, he wondered to himself, what were Ides, anyway? Or maybe had it been, beware the Brides of Frankenstein?  
  
He wrapped the scarf around his neck and started for the park, hoping that his trusty red jacket would keep out the worst of the wind. It howled about him as Nibbler tugged him along.  
  
Fry: Hey, what's the rush, fuzzy? We've still got a little while before Mommy comes back home.  
  
Fry felt the leash jerk again; it seemed like Nibbler was in an even bigger hurry than before.  
  
Nibbler: (Thinking) What is this disturbance in time and space that I feel? Something is coming, but I don't know what, exactly. I have to find out, and see if it will be a threat to the Mighty one. He must save the universe one more time.  
  
They continued on into the entrance of the park, and Fry looked around at the tubes and the people going back and forth, wondering about his night with Leela. He was so distracted by the noise and bustle that he didn't notice a strange sound at the far end of the park, a sort of grinding noise building to a crescendo that abruptly ended with a loud "thunk".  
  
Over in the other corner of the park, the Doctor and Leela stepped out of the TARDIS, the Doctor locking the doors and handing her a spare key.  
  
Doctor: Here you are! I plan to enjoy some museums in this time, as well as visit some friends I made the last time I was here, several years ago by their time, several lifetimes for me. I hope that they're still all right. In this time period, they're discriminated against, because they're mutated humans.  
  
Leela: As advanced as these people are, they still have discrimination against members of their own race?  
  
Doctor: It won't be that way for much longer. There should be a certain couple here, working to normalize relations between the two communities. I just think that.  
  
Leela realized that the Doctor had stopped speaking, and turned to look back at him. He seemed to be concentrating hard, as though something was near that he could not identify. Suddenly, she felt something at the edge of her own consciousness, as though something was attempting to probe her thoughts. Using her own newly acquired time-lord gifts; she shut them off from any possible prying eyes. She looked over and felt for the Doctor's mind, but he'd shut off his own broadcasts as well, and was looking around warily.  
  
Doctor: Leela, there's someone here, very advanced, very powerful. I don't remember feeling this way in a long time, not since I met another powerful being that called itself Sutekh. He was very dangerous, and I nearly didn't survive the encounter. I think that you should go back to the TARDIS; I'll be along shortly.  
  
Leela: No, Doctor, I have made my own decisions for too many years now to worry about times of danger. If you are going to face this, then I shall as well. I will never leave you alone -- you are my mentor -- but I am also no longer the young girl who barged into your TARDIS that day and sent us flying in time accidentally.  
  
The Doctor turned and smiled warmly at Leela, who smiled back at him. It was rare to see genuine warmth on the Doctor's face these days, and, she admitted to herself, it made him look very handsome. Together they stood and searched for whatever could have caused these feelings of trepidation, when the Doctor noticed a young man in a red jacket and orange hair. He was being pulled along by something on a leash, which seemed fairly strong by the look of it, and.  
  
Doctor: Great Rassilon! I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.  
  
Leela: What Doctor? That young man?  
  
Doctor: No, Leela, though he'll likely play an important role in the history of the universe one day. It's what's on the leash that concerns me. Leela, that creature is an Eternian, one of the oldest races in the universe.  
  
Leela: Well, what should it be doing here, acting as though it is a pet to that young man?  
  
Doctor: There are legends that I've heard. the Eternians have predicted that there's a being called.of course! That young man must be the so- called Mighty One, the human being that can supposedly save the universe from total destruction. I'm going to go and meet him.  
  
Leela: Doctor, are you sure that we should? It may cause problems down the line, you know.  
  
Doctor: Oh, don't be ridiculous, Leela. There should be no problem at all. Besides, if he's actually the Mighty One, then he might be acquainted with someone whose family I came here to meet.  
  
Fry stopped short, looking at the two people who had come up to him. The tall man and the very pretty woman he was with were looking at him with undisguised curiosity.  
  
Fry: Um, hello? Can I help you with something?  
  
Doctor: Hello, how do you do? I'm called the Doctor, and this is my good friend and traveling companion, Leela. We wondered if you were friends with a cyclops.  
  
Fry: (Startled) Hey, that's my wife's name, and yeah, she's a cyclops. But, actually, we've been married for nine years now.  
  
Doctor: Married? Of course: she must be the "Other".  
  
Just then, the Doctor felt a blast of mental energy that almost knocked him to the ground.  
  
Nibbler: (Mentally) Stop! He must not know of the things you speak! To do so could endanger the entire universe. You must leave now, before you cause even more damage.  
  
Doctor: (Mentally) Oh, don't be such a bearer of doom and gloom, Eternian. I've been around the universe once or twice. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the Doctor, a being from the Constellation of Kasterboreous, a native of the planet Gallifrey.  
  
Nibbler: (Mentally) Ohhhh, you, you're a time lord?  
  
Doctor: (Mentally) Yes, I'm a time lord. I've visited this planet, well, more than once over the years, and have come to have a personal stake in its development. Also, my mother was from here.  
  
Nibbler: (Mentally) You have a human side to you? That must explain why you want to interfere with this world as well as others that I've sensed in your mind. However, I understand that your race also has a policy of non- interference, after what happened to the Minyans. Why do they allow you to continue to interfere?  
  
Doctor: (Mentally) Well, in this incarnation, it's almost completely buried; though you can still tell it within my eyes. I hope that I could help if there's any difficulty. Earth is my most favorite planet after all, and I've always felt that humans are on the verge of an evolutionary development that would make the Earth one of the most important planets in the universe. As for my fellow Gallifreyans, they have come to accept my eccentricities, and have been happy to allow me my freedom for the most part. I should say that, due to my wanderings, it has become almost impossible for them to track me anyway, unless I come back to my home planet of my own accord. Now, let's be off, shall we? If you wish, you could keep an eye on me; I'm going to visit some friends of mine who live in the underworld of New New York.  
  
Fry stared at the man who called himself "Doctor", who had scooped up Nibbler when he'd pulled away from him. He hoped that Nibbler wouldn't try to bite him, but the man had simply looked at the little fuzzy rat, and then they both had turned to look at him. The man then walked over, and held out Nibbler to him. Fry silently took Nibbler in his arms, and was surprised to see that he didn't struggle at all. In fact, as Nibbler looked up at him with those bright eyes, Fry once again had the feeling that there was more to him than he had thought.  
  
Doctor: Since we've just arrived, how about you show us around this wonderful city, Mr.. Fry, is it? Well, shall we?  
  
Fry was startled. How did this stranger know his name? But the look on the man's face made Fry feel as though he could be trusted with almost anything, and he shrugged the feeling off.  
  
Fry: Ahh, okay. But I've gotta get home, 'cause my own Leela's probably waiting on me by now.  
  
Doctor: Wonderful, it's always nice to meet new people, don't you agree Leela?  
  
Fry, But she's back at the house.oh, you mean your friend, don't you?  
  
Leela: Yes, my name is also Leela; I would be most interested in meeting your wife as well.  
  
Fry: Well, okay, let's go then.  
  
The group set off for the apartment, Fry in the lead and holding Nibbler, the Doctor and his Leela walking not too far behind.  
  
Leela: (Whispering) Doctor, are you sure that we should be doing this?  
  
Doctor: (Anxiously) I think that something's going to happen. I'm starting to remember something now, something that I shouldn't have forgotten, I'm sure of that. We need to go with him for the time being.  
  
Leela: I understand, Doctor, and.what are you looking for?  
  
Doctor: My glasses, where are my glasses? I thought I'd put them in one of my pockets earlier, but I'm not sure which one now.  
  
Leela: Doctor, what's that on your face?  
  
The Doctor lightly groped around his face.  
  
Doctor: Oh.  
  
Leela: Doctor, why didn't you go ahead and have the med-techs simply give you some of the elixir of life to adjust your eyes? While I understand that not every regeneration is perfect, you could have had that fixed easily enough.  
  
Doctor: I suppose so, but I sort of like that my regenerations are never perfect. After having this body for the last 400 years, I think that I've gotten accustomed to it now. I just wish I weren't so absent-minded. I know there was something that's supposed to happen, something important. It's right there in the back of my mind; I just can't recall what it is.  
  
Leela: I'm sure it will appear when it's ready to, Doctor; you must be patient.  
  
Doctor: (Sharply) I know that there's something important!  
  
The Doctor and Leela continued on, while Fry looked toward his and Leela's apartment. There she was, on the stoop, looking a little annoyed. Fry waved nervously, and was glad to see that she waved back at him. She didn't seem like she was that upset after all. At least he thought so until she came running up to him.  
  
Leela: (Sharply) Fry! You know that we have to be at the meeting by 9:00, and it's 8:30 now. And who are these people?  
  
Leela broke off; why was that man with the top hat staring at her so strangely? As she looked at him, she had a strong feeling of deja vu, as though she'd met him somewhere before, but she could have sworn that she never had. She walked up to him, looking intently at his face. Fry shuffled uneasily; what was she looking at? Leela stared at the stranger. His face was. no, not his face, his eyes. She leaned closer, and the man didn't move, except to remove his rimless glasses.  
  
Leela: (Thinking) What is it about those eyes? I know it's something I should remember. I've seen them before, but what's so important about them?  
  
Leela gasped in realization. Those eyes, that had been a lovely shade of gray, had.no, that was impossible, they'd changed to a different shade of blue, now they were brown, now hazel, now gray again. And suddenly different again. Now they looked as black as the night, and she could swear she'd seen.stars? She felt dizzy for a moment. Fry rushed over and helped her sit down, and glared up at the man.  
  
Fry: (Angrily) What'd you do to her? Why don't you go away and don't bother us again!  
  
Leela held onto his arm, and he looked at her.  
  
Leela: Fry, it's all right. I just got dizzy for a minute; I'm okay now. I just thought.I saw something that was impossible.  
  
Doctor: (Softly) Are your parents named Morris and Munda?  
  
Fry and Leela gaped up at him.  
  
Leela: How do you know my parents' name? When did they ever meet you? Are you a mutant like them?  
  
Doctor: No, I'm not a mutant, I'm simply an old friend of theirs. I thought that I'd come here simply to pay a visit, but there's something that I've forgotten, and I can't remember what it.  
  
Suddenly, one of the pockets in the Doctor's coat began to buzz, and he pulled out what looked like a pocket watch. He stared at it for a moment. Then his eyes opened wide, and he put his glasses back on and looked at the watch more intently. Then he looked over at each of them.  
  
Doctor: What day is it today? It's very important that I know, please.  
  
Fry: It's March 15th, you know, the Ides of March, like in that play.  
  
Doctor: March 15th, and the year, what year is it?  
  
Fry's Leela: (Warily) 3015. Why?  
  
The Doctor stood up, and took off his glasses for a moment, rubbing his eyes, then put them back on.  
  
Doctor: The reason I wanted to know, is that that was a reminder alarm, letting me know that someplace, sometime, a planet that I care for faces imminent destruction.  
  
Fry: Well, why don't you go there then, and leave us alone?  
  
Doctor: It not that simple. You see, the planet in question is the Earth, on this day, and according to the note I've left myself, there's supposedly absolutely nothing that I can do.  
  
To be continued  
  
Well, that's the end of part 1, hope that you enjoyed it. There's just a few more chapters to go, and then I'll be working on the next chapter of No more Fun and Games, but if you want to ask me anything about this, have any comments, good or bad (hopefully good), then my email is still wbc31@hotmail.com . Have a peachy keen day, and remember, just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. 


	2. Part 2

Leela Squared . Part 2  
  
Last Time  
  
Doctor: .the planet that is supposed to be destroyed is the Earth, on this day, and according to the note I've left myself, there's absolutely nothing that I can do.  
  
They all stared at the Doctor for a moment, then Fry's Leela narrowed her eye.  
  
Leela: What do you mean, you can't do anything about it? You can tell the authorities, can't you? Why don't you go to the DOOP, the police, or the military?  
  
Doctor: I'm afraid it's not that simple. You see, what I remember about this crisis is that it involved pan-dimensional mathematics, and those can't be easily calculated. At least, my earlier incarnations couldn't have done them.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: What do you mean, Doctor?  
  
Doctor: Even the wisest time lords have been unable to calculate pan- dimensional mathematics, because they've never been able adjust their mind- set to the types of numbers involved. It goes beyond fourth- and fifth- dimensional thinking, and on into the sixth and seventh types. However, when I was taken prisoner, I found myself exposed to beings that existed outside our own plane of reality.  
  
Fry: You mean, like in some kind of twilight zone place? Man, that was a cool show, you know the one where the guy likes to read, and there's the war, and then.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Fry! All right, Doctor, so these aliens from another dimension captured you. How long were you there, and how did you learn to calculate this new type of number?  
  
Doctor: (Softly) I was there for close to a century. That time bought my own people precious time, to prepare a defense for our universe. If I hadn't been able to stall the invaders, then they would have entered our own dimension, and quite probably destroyed everything that mattered to anyone.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: I am still adjusting to my new life, Doctor, but when was all this supposed to have happened?  
  
Doctor: Oh, it must have been over 200 million years ago-about the same time that simple forms of mammalian life had started to appear on the Earth- so none of you would ever have existed. Still, I like this particular universe, and I'll fight for it as long as I'm able.  
  
Fry's/Leela: So, you were taken prisoner for a century? What happened to you while you were there?  
  
Doctor: (Somberly) The usual things that happen to prisoners who don't want to talk. I was tortured for quite some time, to the point that I was close to involuntarily regenerating more than once. However, even as they tortured me, I learned everything I could about them as well, and telepathically fed the information to the high council.  
  
At Fry and Leela's puzzlement, the Doctor's Leela gave them a sympathetic look and gently walked over to them.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: He means the high council of the time lords, the rulers of Gallifrey, and some of the oldest and most powerful beings in the universe, were they to use their power in that manner.  
  
Fry: You mean they're like the guardians of the universe or something?  
  
Doctor: Yes, though we usually only watch and observe. Our policy is not to interfere; I'm a bit of a renegade you see.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Okay, so, you know about the dimension thing. Why can't you stop it, then?  
  
Doctor: Oh, I know the rudiments, but I'm still not very talented in that aspect of it as I am in other things. That, plus, I don't really know what the threat to Earth is supposed to be. I need to go back to my TARDIS and go through one of my diaries, so I can remember what it is that I forgot. Come on, Leela, let's see what we can find, hmm?  
  
Fry's/Leela and the Doctor's Leela both started to walk with him, then stopped. The two of them grinned nervously.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: I'm sorry, I suppose that he meant me. Please, go on to your jobs, and we shall work to stop this tragedy from happening.  
  
Fry's/Leela: (Quickly) What do you mean by that? I'm coming too. It's the lives of my children, my friends, and.my husband that's at stake. Screw the meeting, Fry, if we don't help out, it won't matter anyway.  
  
Just then, a new, yet familiar voice broke into the conversation.  
  
Bender: What won't matter anyway, jerkwads?  
  
The bending robot came up to the others, smoking a cigar and holding a bottle of Pabst Blue Robot in his hand. Fry grinned over at his old friend; he hadn't really changed at all in the years that he'd known him, except that he was a little less obnoxiously evil these days. Well, at least part of the time.  
  
Bender: Hey, who's the goofy-looking couple? You actually made some new friends, meatbags? Or are they here to finally put you back in the asylum, Fry? Ahahaha!  
  
Doctor: Hm. Leela, this is what's called a.bending robot, yes, that's it. They were invented a few hundred years ago, in order to help in the construction of buildings.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: Are they all that.mean-spirited?  
  
Doctor: Ha. There are some I've met that are positively nasty. This one's fairly tame by comparison, so it must have.you're its friend, aren't you?  
  
The Doctor had directed this last question at Fry, who smiled sheepishly.  
  
Fry: Yeah, I've known Bender here ever since I arrived in the future. He was the first friend I made after I woke up. I guess that we've been together now for. 15 years.  
  
Bender: Yeah, it's amazing how these guys grow on you. So, what won't matter anyway, is it time for me to go and step into a suicide booth now? Cuz I don't want to waste any good alcohol, you know? C'mon Fry, it'll be like old times, me and you, dodging out of the way of death.  
  
Fry: (Mumbling) No thanks, no more suicide booths for me.  
  
Doctor: Well, everyone, let's go back to my ship. I'll fill in your mechanical friend on some of what we've discussed, and then, I'll save the world. We should still have time for breakfast.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: Oh, I hope that they still have muffins in this time; I've not had one since the last time we visited London in the 1800's.  
  
The Doctor and his Leela started to walk back towards the park, with Fry and his Leela coming along behind them. Leela held onto Nibbler, stroking his head absent-mindedly, while Bender strolled along in back.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Fry, do you think that we should trust them? We don't really know who they are; they could just be some nuts.  
  
Fry: Y'know, that's possible, Leela, but then, why are we following them?  
  
Fry's/Leela: (Hesitantly) Well.I think that maybe... There is something to both of them, especially that man. I don't know why, but I've seen him somewhere before, or at least, it feels like I have. Besides, if the Earth really is in danger, then I'm one of the best people qualified to save it; I've done it before, you know.  
  
Fry: I know, Leela, and there isn't anyone I'd trust more.  
  
Fry's/Leela: (Smiling) Thanks, Fry. You're a great guy.hey, where'd they go?  
  
She stopped and grabbed hold of Fry's arm; the two strangers had been walking in front of them just a minute ago. Leela looked around, but all she could see was a dingy blue box, standing alone.  
  
Fry: I guess that's where they went; doesn't look very much like a ship though, huh?  
  
The two walked up to the box, and Fry looked at the words at the top.  
  
Fry: "Police Public Telephone Box". Well, they must be in there. There's nowhere else they could've gone.  
  
Bender: Hey Fry, who'd you say these guys were again?  
  
Fry: Um, the guy was called Doctor, and the lady's name was Leela, just like Leela here. Why, whatup?  
  
Bender: I don't know why, but I'm getting the funniest feeling just looking at that box. I don't wanna go any closer to it, if it's the same to you.  
  
Fry's/Leela: (Annoyed) Fine, then you hold onto Nibbler and have a drink. Fry and I are going to get to the bottom of this. C'mon Fry; let's see what's so special about this box.  
  
Leela gave Nibbler to Bender, who went and sat down on a bench, at some distance away, Leela noted to herself.  
  
Fry: Well, let's go in and see what's up, Leels.  
  
Leela smiled for a moment at hearing Fry use her pet name, and then grabbed hold of his hand. They approached the box. Taking a breath, Leela opened the door, and they stepped over the threshold and into what should have been an impossibility. After a moment of blackness, Leela gasped; they were in a room, one that couldn't be inside that box, but.it was, wasn't it? The whole space glowed, with a soft white light that seemed to have no visible source. She grinned giddily; this was incredible, and it was happening to her. She looked over at Fry, who looked awestruck. Leela reached out around his waist, and softly kissed him on the cheek. Fry stared back at her for a moment.  
  
Fry: What was that for?  
  
Fry's Leela: Just because I wanted to, and because I love you.  
  
They smiled at each other for a moment and then walked over to the console where the Doctor and his Leela were standing, the Doctor with an old fashioned book in his hand. As Fry looked at the cover he could just make out the words, "1000 year diary".  
  
The Nimbus was the pride of the DOOP spacefleet. It had an impressive crew of 430 men, and was commanded by one of the greatest heroes of the 31st century, Captain Zapp Branigan. The whole of the DOOP was able to rest easy, knowing that he stood at the head of the lines of freedom throughout the entire galaxy. (Encyclopedia Galactica, Branigan Zapp, entry date 3006)  
  
"Zapp Branigan? That horse's ass got what was coming to him. I normally wouldn't wish anything bad on anyone, seeing as I'm from the Neutral planet, but even I could make an exception for that oaf." (DOOP President, 3020)  
  
The space battleship Nimbus cruised on its assigned patrol at the edge of Earth's solar system, its mighty weaponry armed and awaiting the order to strike at a single word from the commander. On the bridge, equipment hummed, and men did their jobs, with businesslike efficiency. Everything was working perfectly, with the exception of.  
  
Zapp: Kif, why haven't you finished trimming my toenails yet? You know that if I'm going to win over the heart of the lovely captain Leela, I have to have perfect toenails.  
  
Kif: (Sighing) Captain, sir, Leela has been married to Mr. Fry for almost 10 years now. Why do you think that you can still win her over, sir?  
  
Zapp: I know that it's only a matter of time before she realizes the mistake that she made when she married that orange hairball, and comes crawling back for a taste of the Zappster's sweet, sweet candy. Bam.  
  
Kif: Ugh, yes sir, whatever you say sir.  
  
Zapp: I only hope that she hurries up; I can't wait forever, only another fifty years or so, then, I'll have to cut her loose.  
  
Just then, one of the men at a console spoke up.  
  
Sensor operator: Captain Branigan? I'm picking up a strange object that's just entered Earth's solar system. It should pass quite close to us, within the next few minutes, sir.  
  
Zapp: Where does this so-called mystery object appear to be heading, soldier?  
  
Sensor operator: If it maintains its present course sir, it appears that it'll head straight on towards.Earth.  
  
Zapp: Really. Well, put it on the screen, Kif; let's see what this thing is.  
  
Kif sighed and dutifully walked over to the main view screen, and turned it on. Against the curtain of stars, they could make out what looked like nothing less than a missile. Even as they stared at it, it appeared to fade away for a moment before it snapped back to full visibility again. The fading happened again, this time for a longer period.  
  
Zapp: Kif, what's up with the missile.thingy, and why doesn't it stay visible all of the time? It makes me dizzy just looking at it.  
  
Kif: Sir, it appears to be phasing in and out of our dimension, and.oh this looks bad. The missile appears to have a duotronium warhead. If it strikes Earth, or any other planet within the solar system, the implosion that will occur will effectively wipe out the entire system, sir.  
  
Zapp: Really, so what that means is that there won't be any lovely ladies left on Earth then?  
  
Kif: Sir, there won't be anyone left on any of the inhabited planets. They'll all be destroyed.  
  
Zapp: Well, then we'd better get a message to the Earth as soon as possible. Kif, take a letter. Attention: Ladies of Earth, Zapp Branigan here, the hero of Andromeda 12. Just wanted to let you know, there's a dangerous missile that's approaching Earth, which looks as though it will destroy the planet. So, if you'd like a chance with the Zapper, here's my email address. Let me know where you escape to, and we'll get to work repopulating the human race. And hurry it up -- I've got to take my weekly soak --but if you'd like to help, that's Zapp, Branigan, B.R.A.N. something, something. See you later, chickie babies, mwah! There we go Kif, that should help make sure there's a large supply of females for me to choose from.  
  
Kif: But sir, aren't we going to even try and stop the missile before it gets deeper into the solar system? We may still have a chance to save the Earth.  
  
Zapp: Kif, one day, when you're a man, you'll realize, that it is a far better thing I do for me, than for somebody else, or something like that. Anyway, let's be off, I've got to get ready to meet the flood of female companionship coming this way. To the Lovenasium!  
  
Kif: But sir, Amy's on Earth, and so is Leela and your family and.  
  
Kif sighed to himself and followed Zapp to his cabin, cursing both Branigan and himself in his heart. Branigan was a horrible man, but didn't that mean that Kif was even more horrible for continuing to follow him? Kif sighed heavily, and walked on towards Zapp's room. Would whatever gods there were, forgive him his weakness someday?  
  
Leela felt Fry's hold on her hand subtly increase, and she squeezed back. For the last few minutes, they'd been standing around, while the Doctor had sat down in a rocking chair that she was sure hadn't been there earlier. While the humming of the ship and the gentle squeak of the rocking chair sounded comforting, she couldn't help but wonder if this was really happening. She was jolted out of her reverie, as the Doctor's "Leela" walked over to her, and lightly placed her hand on her forearm.  
  
Doctor's Leela: I understand. I experienced the same thing the first time I entered the TARDIS. It's is difficult for the mind to comprehend dimensional transcendentalism. At first glance, you think, this is impossible. It can't be this big on the inside, and so small on the outside.  
  
Fry (Excitedly): Yeah that's what makes it so cool. You know, it looks like you could get all of Planet Express in here, along with our own apartment too.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: Well, there's more to it than that. You see, the inside of the TARDIS is, in effect, another dimension, one where normal physical laws act somewhat... differently, to say the least. For instance, no energy weapons can be used in here, at least in theory, and you find that the aging process slows down considerably. Why, the first time I traveled with the Doctor, I looked no different from when I started, though several years had gone by.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Huh. I could've used something like that after I got married.  
  
Fry: (Hugging her from behind) Yeah, but you're still the most beautiful woman on Earth, hon.  
  
Fry's/Leela (Smiling and holding his arms) You just remember to keep saying that, Fry.  
  
Just then they heard a sharp exclamation from the Doctor, who'd been looking at his diary during their conversation.  
  
Doctor: Of course! I knew that there was something I was forgetting, I just couldn't remember what it was. You know, my old instructor in temporal physics always told me that I had a poor memory, mind like a tortoise he'd say, and I 'd reply with a rather witty remark, something along the lines of-  
  
Doctor's/Leela: Doctor! What did you find out?  
  
Doctor: Discover? Oh yes, well, from what I wrote in my diary some years ago, during one of my earlier regenerations.I discovered an alternate timeline, where the Earth had been destroyed for several decades. According to the histories of other races in that time frame, some type of super-weapon destroyed the Earth. Apparently, I tried to get there, but got delayed by something else, and then there was my capture and imprisonment, so I never got around to saving the planet.  
  
Fry's/Leela: What?! You mean that you had some kind of knowledge about this, and didn't stop it from happening? Are you stupid or something? I should kick your ass right here, but I.ooh, damn it!  
  
Leela came up short as Fry had come over to her and put his hand gently on her arm. As she looked at him, the tension in her body melted away, and she sighed deeply for a moment, before she put down the fist that she'd raised a moment earlier. The Doctor looked at her for a few seconds, and then he set his diary down next to him.  
  
Doctor: You know, someone asked a good friend of mine a question like that, and I think he said 'stupid is as stupid does', or something like that. Anyway, I was captured and tortured for about a century, and I'm afraid that I've become a bit more absent-minded since then. Well, I'm here now, all I have to do is figure out how to stop a weapon I've not seen before, keep it from destroying one of my most favorite planets, and then, find out what I've done with all my sheep.  
  
Fry and Leela exchanged glances. The Doctor's eyes had widened a little bit at his last statement, but he looked completely serious.  
  
Fry: Uh...sure, whatever you say. Hey Doc, what's in this room over there?  
  
Doctor: (Distractedly) Hmmm, oh, that's a door that leads out into the depths of the TARDIS. You can look around, all you want, while I think about what to do.  
  
Fry: Okay, I'll be back in a minute. Say Leela, you want to come with me?  
  
Fry's/Leela (Exasperated) Fry, the Earth may be destroyed in a minute, and you want to...what? Take a tour around this place? Don't you ever stop and think about.  
  
Leela stopped as she saw the hurt on Fry's face, and once again cursed herself mentally. Fry really did care about her and the kids, and about everything in general, he just had that happy-go-lucky attitude that made him sometimes act without thinking. It made her so frustrated with him at times, but it was one of the reasons that she'd fallen in love with him[dw].  
  
Fry's/Leela: Sorry Fry, why don't you go ahead and take a look around, and I'll catch up to you in a moment.  
  
Fry: (Softly) Okay Leela, I'll just be over here. Love ya.  
  
Fry walked off, and Leela turned back to the Doctor, only to see him and his friend trying to look in completely different directions for the moment. "Leela" glanced over and saw her looking at the two of them, and gently nudged the Doctor in the ribs, causing him to look at her as well.  
  
Doctor: Oh my. I must apologize for any of the mental pain that I may have caused you; I assure you, it was done inadvertently.  
  
Fry's/Leela: It's all right Doctor, I'm a little nervous, and when I get nervous, I get snappish. You know, Fry hasn't really changed that much in the years that we've known each other.  
  
Leela glanced over at Fry, where he seemed to have found a chest of drawers. She was positive it hadn't been there before.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: I understand. I was much the same way when I was with my husband on Gallifrey. Even now, I miss him so much.  
  
Fry's Leela's eye opened wide for a moment, and she started to ask a question when the Doctor, who'd been standing silently for a moment, looked up and took his glasses off, and rubbed them with the end of his necktie.  
  
Doctor (To himself): Of course, that could work, but it'd be stupendously dangerous. Still, maybe.excuse me ladies, why don't we step outside, and look at the landscape for a moment? It always helps me to think, looking at the trees and flowers.  
  
The Doctor had directed this question to the two women, and they all started towards the door, even though Leela felt like she was missing something. Nobody noticed that the door that led out of the console room had closed a moment earlier.  
  
Fry looked down a brightly-lit corridor, noticing that the hallways seemed to stretch on forever, and that there were doors on either side. He walked on a short distance, looking at each door, then stopped in front of one.  
  
Fry: Huh. I wonder what's in this room?  
  
He opened the door, and gasped: there was nothing in the room but what appeared to be a white void. As he gaped, in the distance he saw a vaguely reptilian creature, flying rapidly towards him.  
  
Creature: Release me! I demand it! I.beg of you, please. I will do anything you ask of me, PITIFUL FOOL!  
  
Fry leaned back, because the thing had just about reached the door, and as it screamed out the last bit, he hurriedly shut it. The noise faded, though as he leaned against the door, he thought he could hear the creature screaming something, about where had the door gone, and something about revenge against the Doctor, and. Roman legions? Fry leaned back against the wall, breathing heavily. Being married to Leela had done wonders for his health - she was a hard trainer - but he was still getting older.  
  
Fry: (To himself) It's too bad I can't regenerate like this Doctor guy. I'd keep myself 25 forever. I wonder what's in that door?  
  
As Fry continued to open doors, the two Leelas were walking toward the main doors of the TARDIS. The Doctor was going on about the trees in springtime, and both women were feeling more than a little strange, as though they were doing the right thing, but for all the wrong reasons.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: Doctor, what about the.?  
  
Doctor: I know, why don't we go to London later on, and I'll buy you some muffins, Leela, and then we can go to the theater afterwards.  
  
The Doctor said this in a soothing voice, one that made her feel very warm, and his smile was very charming, but why did she feel like there was something she was missing? Fry's Leela felt the same way, then felt the energies swirl around her as they crossed over the threshold and into the bright sunlit morning of New New York. She turned back to see the door close behind them, and was surprised, then angry, as the box began to make a loud noise, like ancient machinery grinding. Anger became surprise again as it faded from sight.  
  
Fry's Leela: What happened just now? Where did he go, and what's with the box disappearing? I want some answers, and now, or so help me, I'll.  
  
She stopped as the other Leela shook her head and looked at her.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: (Irritated) The Doctor, he pushed us mentally. He made us leave the TARDIS, so that he could do something, but what? He looked like he'd had an idea, and then he started to talk to us, and I felt myself agreeing with him. He's never done that before. If he went by himself, then he must be planning to do something very dangerous. I wonder.  
  
The Doctor's Leela stopped speaking as she noticed the other Leela looking around wildly.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Fry? Fry! Where are you? Fry.oh no, he couldn't be.  
  
She broke off and looked at her counterpart, not noticing Bender sidling up next to her.  
  
Bender: Hey pusballs, where'd that box go, and why didn't Fry come out with you? I know him enough that he'd never take off anywhere without you and your big nose ta keep 'im outta trouble.  
  
Bender muted as he saw Leela's shoulders tense up; he had learned over the years, that when that happened, it wasn't a good idea to be around her. Too bad Fry still hadn't caught on, woulda saved him a lot of exercise in their training room.  
  
Fry's/Leela: (Quietly) Where is he? So help me, if this "Doctor" hurts Fry in any way, I'll, I'll.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: The Doctor would never do anything to harm him. I am sure that your husband is perfectly safe, and the Doctor will be back with him shortly. Please, be calm, and do not worry.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Damn it, that's just not good enough! Get him back here, and get him back NOW!  
  
She had just placed her hand on the older lady's shoulder. The next thing she knew, she was lying flat on her back, and the knife at her throat let her know that a struggle could be fatal. The woman looked coolly down upon her for a moment, and then set down her knife and smiled gently.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: There are certain beings and things in this universe that are not be trifled with, and a warrior of the Sevateem is one of them. I understand that you are upset. Were I in your place, I would be as well, but you must trust me, the Doctor is a being of great compassion. He will bring your husband back to you, safe and sound. You must trust me, please.  
  
She stood up and extended a hand to her counterpart, and after a moment, Fry's Leela took it and stood up as well.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Okay, I'll take a chance here, and hope that my husband comes home safely. I don't know why, especially after what happened with the Doctor just now, but.I believe you. Lord help me, I don't know why, I just do. But if Phillip gets hurt in any way, then so help me God, I'll.I don't know what I'll do, but it won't be pretty.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: I understand, and please, trust in the universe, for things to work out for the best. You had better take care of him, Doctor, for all our sakes.  
  
She directed this last sentence quietly, and up at the sky, though she knew that the Doctor was already far away in both space and time.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Hey, where'd Nibbler run off to? Bender, I thought you were keeping an eye on him!  
  
Bender: Hey, 'ol Bender's got more important things to do than keep up a surveillance on that overgrown mutant mouse. Hey, hey, I just put him down for a minute, and he started to run around the bench, then I got a little - uh - distracted by this nice looking fembot, and the next thing I know, he ain't around no more. Ahhh, I'm sorry Leela!  
  
Bender had said this last bit because Leela had just picked him up by the neck and started to squeeze. After his apology she set him back down, much more gently.  
  
Leela: (Small-voiced) I'm sorry too, Bender, I just lost myself for a moment, what with Fry disappearing, and now Nibbler. Oh, they'd better take care of themselves, or I'll take him to the training room and give him a workout that neither of them will ever forget.  
  
The view of Earth from space is one of the loveliest sights in the cosmos. The Doctor mused on this, even as the TARDIS entered the vortex, which proceeded to bend and shape the reality of his universe once again.  
  
Doctor: (To himself) I'm very sorry, ladies, but this was too dangerous to consider letting either of you come along. I'm sure that if I fail at this, then the time-lords may well do something, especially as Earth is a temporal nexus. Now, let me set the coordinates and then, well, let's see, shall we?  
  
The Doctor was so absorbed in the controls that he didn't notice the small, furry creature that was stealthily approaching him from behind.  
  
Nibbler: (Mentally) I must shield my thoughts from this being, until just the right moment, any time now, and.  
  
Just then, the Doctor stood up straight and started to drum his fingers on the console, and Nibbler froze in place..  
  
Doctor: (Musing) Why do I keep getting the feeling that I've forgotten something? Let's see, coordinates set, check. The TARDIS is at full power, the Eye of Harmony is receiving steadily. Glasses?  
  
The Doctor put a hand to his face and chuckled softly when he touched his glasses. Then his eyes opened wide, and with a sharp intake of breath he turned toward the door behind him, which was just closing.  
  
Fry: Hey Doc, those're some really nice rooms you've got back there; I didn't have a chance to go through all of them, but if you've got the time, what up with that one room with the herd of sheep, and the little pig that's walking around with them?  
  
Doctor: Oh no! Come on, young man, we've got to get you back to Earth. I'm sure your wife is very angry with me by now. My companion probably is as well, but if I time things just right, we can put you back there immediately after we left.  
  
The Doctor turned back to his console when he heard another voice.  
  
Nibbler: Stop! The safety of the Mighty one is of paramount importance. We must continue away from Earth and toward my home planet, where the Fry brain can be safely stored and guarded.  
  
Fry: Nibbler, you can talk? Cool, can you like tell me about the times when you were looking at me, and I.  
  
Nibbler: Yes, yes, Mighty one, you were able to discern that my abilities were more than they seemed. It was a result of your lack of the delta wave in your brain.  
  
Doctor: No delta wave? Fascinating, simply fascinating. But, I still have to get Fry back home, and save the Earth.  
  
Nibbler: No! The high council of Eternia has determined that the safest spot is on our home planet. Fry, we understand that you will miss your home and friends, but we can recreate them for you. All will be as though it never changed at all  
  
Doctor: (Coldly) Really? Can you recreate the love of his friends, his family, and his wife? Don't you think you should give Fry here the opportunity to make his own choices?  
  
Fry: (A little angry) Yeah. I don't want to go somewhere else, I want the people that I know, and the woman I fell in love with, not a copy of her. I'm sorry, Nibbler, but I wanna go back home, 'kay?  
  
Nibbler: NO! I will do as I must to protect you, and if that means sacrificing the Earth in order to save the universe, then I will!  
  
With that, Nibbler used his third eye to wipe Fry's memory, but the Doctor had reached over and placed his hands on Fry's head. After the flash, Fry blinked a couple of times and then turned to the Doctor.  
  
Fry: Did you just taste something purple? Hey Nibbler, I want to go back home, please? I want to be with my wife and kids. They'll always be more important to me than the universe. They're my universes now.  
  
Nibbler shook his head sadly.  
  
Nibbler: Mighty one, I am sorry, but I do what I must, for the whole of all the beings of the universe.  
  
With that, he turned towards the Doctor, who instinctively backed up a step.  
  
Nibbler: Time lord! You will relinquish control of this vessel to me, or I will wipe your mind clean!  
  
Doctor: No, I don't think you'd become so desperate as to do something like that.  
  
Nibbler: I DO WHAT I MUST!  
  
With that said, the Doctor felt, rather than heard, an ever-increasing sound in his head, one that grew higher each second. In moments he felt his vision blurring, and he could not stay on his feet. Clutching his head, he sank to the floor. The last thing he heard was Nibbler's voice, barely audible through the pain.  
  
Nibbler: I.I am sorry.  
  
To be continued 


	3. Leela Squared part 3

. . Part 3  
  
Last time  
  
Nibbler: Time lord! You will relinquish control of this vessel to me, or I will wipe your mind clean!  
  
Doctor: No, I don't think you'd become so desperate as to do something like that.  
  
Nibbler: I DO WHAT I MUST!  
  
The Doctor felt, rather than heard, an ever-increasing sound in his head, one that grew higher each second. In moments he felt his vision blurring, and he could hardly stay on his feet. Clutching his head, the last thing he heard was Nibbler's voice, barely audible through the pain.  
  
Nibbler: I.I am sorry.  
  
That was the last thing the Doctor heard, as he sank to the floor.  
  
Fry ran to the unconscious form of the Doctor, kneeling down beside him but afraid to touch him. Then he angrily turned to face Nibbler.  
  
Fry: Why'd you do that? He's trying to save Leela, and Hilly and Davey, and.damn it, the whole Earth! I won't let you do this!  
  
He leapt to his feet and started towards Nibbler, who sighed and looked at him sadly for a moment. Then he flexed his third eye, and Fry found himself frozen in his tracks.  
  
Nibbler: Mighty one, I am truly sorry for this. While I did recommend that this action take place, I had hoped that you would have the "Other" with you when the time came. Alas, it was not to be. I can only hope that you will someday be able to forgive me. You will forget this period of time, and now, you will sleep.  
  
Nibbler looked at Fry, who found himself feeling very tired, but he wasn't sleepy was he, no, he couldn't be, he was trying to help Leela, he didn't want.to.  
  
Fry gently slumped over, snoring loudly. Nibbler watched him a moment longer, then satisfied that he was truly asleep, waddled over to the console. He stood at the base, then gathering himself, leaped upwards, landing on top it. He studied the controls intently, then flicked a switch.  
  
Nibbler: There, that should activate the inertial guidance drive, which will allow me to move this ship out of the time vortex. Then I can plot a course for Eternia.  
  
Nothing was happening. Then, the switch that he had flipped toggled back to its original position.  
  
Nibbler: What? This cannot be. I am the one in control of this vessel. Let me see, the trans-dimensional stabilizers are here, so, if I move them to zero plus seven, that should put me on a homeward course.  
  
Nibbler turned the dials counter clock-wise, but as soon as he released them, they turned themselves back to their original positions.  
  
Nibbler: (Angry) I am in command of this vessel, and it will obey me! It will! It must! I am Lord Nibbler, of the Nibblonians, and I command you to obey me!  
  
He flexed his third eye again, and the room was filled with purple haze. When it cleared, the instruments were reading the same course as before.  
  
Nibbler: Obey me! You must, no machine can withstand the mental power of a Nibblonian. You shall follow my instructions, you must!  
  
Nibbler glared at the console, and the room was again awash in purple. As he strained, he failed to notice that the Doctor had turned over and was now sitting up with his back against the wall. He stood up, and put his hand to his forehead for a moment.  
  
Doctor: Whew! That was somewhat intense! Still, it wasn't as bad as that time on Peladon. That left me with quite the headache. Now, why haven't we arrived at. oh dear.  
  
The Doctor made that last statement as he spied the Eternian straining to make the controls heed his will..  
  
Doctor: It won't work, you know. The controls of the TARDIS are isomorphic, one to one, as it were.  
  
Nibbler started and quickly turned to face the Doctor.  
  
Nibbler: Then you must take us to my home.  
  
Doctor: I can't do that, I'm afraid. I have to save the Earth now.  
  
Nibbler: (Despairing) But.the Mighty one. He must be preserved, lest the universe come to an end. If it meant that the entirety of the universe could be spared by the destruction of a single planet, would you not do so?  
  
The Doctor slowly walked over to the console, keeping an eye on Nibbler, while surreptitiously looking at Fry. Satisfied that he was unharmed, he turned his full attention back to Nibbler  
  
Doctor: That's just it. Don't you see? All life in the universe must be treated as completely sacred. If you start to make decisions as if the lives of the many are more important than the lives of the few, then you have started down a road from which it is difficult to turn back. I know this, because for several centuries, I did the same thing. Have you ever heard of the Daleks, from the planet Skaro?  
  
Nibbler: (Shuddering) Yes, they are amoral, evil creatures. If they were as completely capable as the brain-spawn, they would pose an even larger threat to the universe. When their sun went nova several centuries ago, it weakened them for a time, though we foresee a day when they may attempt again to conquer the universe.  
  
Doctor: I know. I was the person who blew up that sun, and destroyed their home planet; at least I thought it was their home planet. It turned out it wasn't. The Daleks had tricked me several centuries earlier, by creating an environment similar to Skaro, on another planet. For all those years, I thought that that was their home, and when I tricked their original creator, Davros, into testing a stellar manipulator, which caused that sun to go supernova, I only destroyed a dead world. I found that out several years later, when I was captured and taken to the real Skaro.  
  
Nibbler: But you did what you thought was right, even if it turned out wrong.  
  
Doctor: Yes, but I ended up doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons. It's so easy you know, looking at the winds of time, going into different histories, trying to pick and choose what's best for somebody. I know what a temptation it is to meddle; I did it for centuries, and still do. You have to balance out the lives that you help, with the ones that will be hurt. You Nibblonians and your eternal war with the brain-spawn... you're just as bad as the Sontaran and Rutan empires, with their own interminable war. They don't even remember what started the battle anymore. Do you?  
  
Nibbler: The brain-spawn want to conquer the universe! They must be stopped, even if it means.  
  
Doctor: Yes, if it means what, Lord Nibbler? Maybe the destruction of a single planet here, or one there. How many lives are expendable in the end, hm? How many times do you decide that this is the final time you'll do this? It's a difficult question, isn't it?  
  
Nibbler: (Morosely) I have been alive for many hundreds of millennia, Doctor. Sometimes, I simply want it to be over, so that I can finally find the peace that I want, that I need.  
  
Doctor: I understand, maybe more than you will ever know. I've done things over my lifetimes that I'll never be able to forget, things that make me worry that I crossed a line, one that I'll never be able to step back from. You still have a choice, one that will decide the way that your war with the brains continues.  
  
Nibbler: I understand. I hope that you, as well as Fry, will be able to forgive me. For all my faults, I truly did mean the best for him.  
  
Doctor: When he wakes up, you should tell him yourself. If you continue to hide this from him, then he will grow to resent you when you do let him know the truth. I've found that humans are a most resilient species. You may well find that Fry, and Leela, would both willingly try to save the universe, were you to simply ask.  
  
The conversation was interrupted by a noise from Fry, who had rolled over and bumped his head against the base of the control console.  
  
Fry: Ow! That hurt.hey, what am I doing on the floor? The last thing I remember is going out of the room here, then I was looking around at some doors in this big hallway. How'd I get back in here, and why'd I fall asleep? Man, these deliveries must really be getting to me.  
  
Doctor: (To himself) Well, at least he seems unharmed, but the Nibblonian erased a little too much. Now I'll never find my sheep. Oh well.(out loud) Fry! I'm glad to see that you're feeling better; I should have warned you that travel in the vortex can make certain people feel quite woozy. I apologize for any discomfort this caused. Why don't we get you and your pet back home now?  
  
Fry: Okay. I just feel like I'm missing something, but I don't know what. Ah, I guess it'll come to me later on.  
  
As Fry spoke, the Doctor looked pointedly at Nibbler, who looked down at his feet for a moment, and then stared back up into Fry's eyes. Just as he opened his mouth, the two of them heard a rude noise from the Doctor, followed by some words that had more vowels than consonants.  
  
Doctor: (Quietly) I don't have time, I'm going to have to go ahead with my original plan.I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to try and make my idea work now, rather than later.  
  
Fry: What up? Why can't you get me back home, and then try again?  
  
Doctor: We've spent too much time in the TARDIS, and I've almost missed the intercept moment already. I've got only one chance to get it right, and if I mess this up, then it'll be good-bye, for all of us.  
  
Fry: So, what're going to try and do?  
  
Doctor: In theory, as the missile phases in and out of time and space, it still follows the same timeline. So, what I'm going to do is attempt to intercept it at a nexus that I've computed in my mind. I've dropped the TARDIS out of the vortex, and as the missile phases out, I'll dematerialize the TARDIS for just a moment, and then, I hope, re-materialize around it as it returns to normal space.  
  
Fry: Okay, and then.?  
  
Doctor: Well, it was just the beginnings of an idea, not a full-blown plan. Those take time, which is something we don't have enough of at the moment, even with me being a Time Lord.  
  
Fry: That's it? That's what we've got to save the Earth with? Cool!  
  
Doctor: That's the spirit! Now, stand by for emergency de- materialization! Oh, I'd hold onto something if I were you.  
  
Fry picked up Nibbler and stuck him in his zipped-up jacket, and gripped the edges of the console, while the Doctor held onto a switch.  
  
Outside the ship, the blue box hung quietly in space, though it was far from alone. The Nimbus had been monitoring the situation from the edge of the solar system, though no one expected this from the scanners.  
  
Kif: Captain Branigan, something has simply.appeared in the flight path of the missile.  
  
Zapp: What, a meteorite, or maybe, the stupendous Planet Express ship, along with the lovely Captain Leela?  
  
Kif: No sir, it's a, a, blue box, that just appeared. One minute the area was empty and then.  
  
Kif halted, for at the mention of the "blue box" Branigan had sat up quicker that he'd ever seen him move before. Zapp stood up and paced the bridge for a moment, then stopped and turned to Kif with a mixture of fear and elation on his face.  
  
Zapp: Who else knows about this besides you, my trusting and loyal servant?  
  
Kif: Only myself, and the scanner operator, crewman Tweekin, sir.  
  
Zapp placed his hand on his chin for a moment, and to Kif, it almost looked as though he were trying to think. It was strangely unsettling. Kif was startled out of his reverie when Zapp spoke.  
  
Zapp: (Authoritatively) Kif, I think that crewman Tweekin is deserving of some shore leave. Have him sent to Benirob 4, immediately.  
  
Kif: Benirob.Captain, that's one of the most dangerous places in the galaxy, sir. The life expectancy of an Earthling there is less than 24 hours. Why would you want to send him to that terrible place?  
  
Zapp: Kif, on this ship, Brannigan's law is the law, and Brannigan's law says, have him sent there immediately. Carry out my orders, now.  
  
Kif was stunned. Zapp was lazy, callous and downright moronic, a large amount of the time. He'd managed to send thousands of young men to their doom, in part because of some idiotic view of glory that he thought he deserved, but now, he was ordering the murder of this young man, who'd simply done nothing more than his required job. Kif squared his shoulders. He couldn't let Zapp get away with this, no he was going to, to...  
  
Kif: (Sighing) Yes sir, I'll have your order carried out immediately.  
  
Zapp: Very good, Kif, and after that's done, meet me in the docking bay. I want to take the captain's sloop out for a spin, and I need you with me, in case I have.an accident.  
  
Kif shuddered, the last time Zapp had had an "accident", it taken him a week to hand-wash the stain out of that velour. Kif gritted his teeth and looked up.  
  
Kif: Yes Captain, I'll bring along extra materials, just in case.  
  
Zapp: Good. Meet me in the launch bay in 40 minutes; I have to make a call. Then, we're off, to outer space.  
  
Zapp walked out. Kif watched the door close behind him, resisting an urge to raise his hand in a fist with a finger sticking up. He'd seen it in some of the older movies Fry had shown him, though no one did it anymore these days. Still, it sometimes did seem like an appropriate move... no, he'd never have the nerve to do something like that to Zapp, he was just too weak-willed. Sighing to himself, he walked off the bridge and headed for the bay. It was best that he see what Zapp was up to.  
  
The Doctor stood at the console, his hand hovering over a switch, while Fry looked on, Nibbler safely zipped up in his jacket.  
  
Doctor: All right, now, as the missile flies towards us... If my calculations are correct, it'll phase out for just a moment, then snap back to this dimensional plane. I'll move the TARDIS just a bit and partially dematerialize it. If everything works correctly, when I rematerialize the ship, the missile will be inside it as well.  
  
Fry: What? It'll be in here, in this room with us?  
  
Doctor: Oh no! I've moved the interior around already; there's a room just waiting to receive it. After that, then I'll figure out how to disarm it, or failing that, think of a safe place to dispose of it. But there should be no problems whatsoever... I think.  
  
He turned back to the console.  
  
Outside the ship, the blackness of space glittered with millions of stars, each moving at its own pace, but in the distance, a twinkle appeared, and grew rapidly. In the next instant, it had resolved itself into a cylinder. As it closed with the TARDIS, it faded out completely.  
  
Doctor: Now!  
  
He flipped the switch and the TARDIS started to move, slowly at first, then more rapidly; then it faded from sight.  
  
The Doctor gripped the edges of the console and looked at his two charges.  
  
Doctor: Hold on, I'm going to materialize very quickly - it may be a bit of a bump.  
  
Fry gripped the edge of the console even harder, and there was a violent lurch. The TARDIS leaned wildly from one side to the other. After another lurch, gentler than the first, the TARDIS slowly returned to its usual upright position, and Fry gingerly let go of the console.  
  
Doctor: Well, that's that. Now, I'll set the controls, and we'll get you back to Earth in two shakes of a cat's bell, hopefully just after we left, so it'll seem like no time has passed at all.  
  
The Doctor stopped his banter as he saw Fry staring wide-eyed at a spot beyond and behind him. He turned around with a sinking feeling in his stomach.  
  
Fry: So, was this part of the plan, Doc? Just so you'd be able to get to it easier, or something like that?  
  
Doctor: Oh my no. This isn't what I wanted at all. Well, I'm going to have to move a bit quicker than I originally had planned, that's all.  
  
The Doctor said this as he looked at the ten-meter long missile on the floor of the console room next to the far wall. Suddenly, a pattern of lights flickered on the nose cone. They started to blink faster.  
  
Doctor: Step back away from it, and grab hold of the console, NOW!  
  
As Fry grabbed the console, the lights continued to speed up. He knew what was coming.  
  
Fry: Goodbye Leels, I'm sorry I didn't get to tell you I love you one more time...  
  
The Doctor worked the controls frantically, flipping a switch just as a different kind of light blossomed.  
  
Fry's Leela had sat on the park bench for a good ten minutes. Every so often, she looked up at the spot where the police box had stood, sighed, and looked down again. This was one of the things that she hated most in the world, having to wait on something, knowing she couldn't hurry it or affect it in any way. She looked at the Doctor's companion, who had gone for a short walk on the footpath. What had she said, that her husband had been gone for a while? She stood up and walked over to her counterpart, who was busy feeding the fish in the duck pond. The Doctor's/Leela looked over as she approached, and threw in the last of the bread.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: You know, in my old life, before I ever met the Doctor, I would have had a spear with me, and the sight of such a fat fish would have had me drooling. On my old home-planet, my tribe had to work hard to find enough to eat. When you were deemed old enough, you were sent on the hunts, and a mentor trained you in their ways. That way, you could take over for them when they became to old to work for the tribe. The Doctor has shown me so much over the years - I will always be grateful to him for that - but sometimes, I still miss my old home with the Sevateem, fighting the Tesh and living my life freely. Now, I have become a woman, with responsibilities. But I would never change anything I have done: traveling with the Doctor, living on Gallifrey, meeting my future husband.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Wow... How'd you manage to meet up with the Doctor? You said that you weren't always a time lord.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: No, not originally. I was from a planet some 200 years in your past. The ship my family was on was a Survey ship, but our computer developed what was originally thought to be a fault. Only later on, when the Doctor visited us for a second time, was it discovered that the computer was becoming sentient. The first time he visited us, he thought it was a simple malfunction, and repaired it using some of his memory engrams. The computer, trying to reconcile its own personality with the Doctor's, eventually went mad. It decide to conduct an experiment in eugenics, and had the crew separated into two groups, the Sevateem, or Survey team, of which my family was a part, and the Tesh, or Technicians, who stayed behind to repair the ship.  
  
Fry's Leela: Oh my lord, how did you survive?  
  
Doctor's/Leela: It was very difficult. When the Doctor visited us again, the Sevateem was no more than a savage tribe, while the Tesh were the computer's attendants. The Doctor realized his mistake, and repaired the computer, correctly this time. I had become his friend, and sneaked on board his TARDIS. We journeyed for several years together, until I visited his planet, and met my future husband there. We married, and were together for almost 90 years, until the invasion that the Doctor spoke of. There were several races involved in that, and one of them helped to cause the death of my husband.  
  
Fry's Leela: I'm.sorry. I don't know what I'd do if my Fry got killed.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: I.went nearly insane with rage at first, it was only later on, that I helped to defeat them. As a reward, the Time Lords gave me the opportunity to become as they are, and I accepted it. I wanted to help others, and it allowed me to do that for a much longer time.  
  
The Doctor's Leela grasped her counterpart's arm.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: And what of you? How did you manage to meet your husband? You said that you have been married for nine years now. He seems a very sweet and kind man. The two of you fit so well together, I would have guessed it was love at first sight.  
  
Fry's Leela: Not at first. I'd been in several relationships over the years, but they always ended badly.. I guess with Fry, it was just luck, though he says it was fate.  
  
Doctor's Leela: How so?  
  
Fry's Leela: Well, Fry was accidentally frozen in the twentieth century, and thawed out in the year 3000. I was what's called a fate assignment officer, you know, someone to help the thawees adjust to their new life. When I met Fry, he made me realize that I really hated my job, and he seemed like a nice guy. We became friends, got a job with his nephew, and worked there for several years. My feelings for him grew, and about five years after we met, I realized that I loved him. We dated off and on for a little while, but I knew in my heart that he was the right person for me. I just let my own stubbornness get in the way for so long, I was lucky that we finally got together.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: Let me give you some advice: Always remember to hold precious the time that you two have together, whether it is only one day or a hundred years. Even the Time Lords do not have the ability to see the future perfectly, and when you find someone that you truly love, it is best to concentrate on the here and now, because tomorrow will always bring something different.  
  
Fry's Leela: I finally realized that ten years ago, but sometimes it's still easy to forget. Thanks.  
  
The two Leela's returned to the bench and sat looking at the empty spot together.  
  
Fry blinked and looked around. Hadn't they been blown up? He saw the Doctor still holding on to the controls. Nibbler was in the folds of his jacket looking up at him, and the missile was still sitting there. There was a small crack down the side of the nose cone. It glowed dimly. Fry turned back to the Doctor, who had taken a handkerchief out of a coat pocket and was cleaning his glasses.  
  
Fry: Hey Doc, whatup? I thought we were gonna get blown to bits. Are we dead now, in some kind of creepy limbo, just waiting for the grim reaper to come along?  
  
Doctor: (Bemused) You know, you probably watch too much television, Mr. Fry. No, as the warhead started to detonate, I slowed down the time field inside the TARDIS. Now, I couldn't stop it completely, but I have given us enough time to possibly disarm the weapon.  
  
Fry: Cool! Well, let's get busy. All we gotta do is snip a blue wire or something, and that'll take care of it, right?  
  
He let go of the console and started towards the missile, but as he did this, a funny thing happened. He felt like he was moving through a lake of honey. Everything had slowed down, and even though he was sure that he was walking, it felt like he was still on his first step.  
  
The Doctor sighed to himself, walked around the console, and grabbed hold of Fry's arm. This wasn't very difficult, as Fry had almost completely stopped. Even as he touched Fry, it seemed as if time resumed flowing normally around him, and they quickly stepped back to the console. The Doctor placed Fry's hands firmly on it.  
  
Doctor: Now, hold onto the edge here, and don't let go. If you leave the immediate vicinity of the time field around the console, you'll get stuck in time, and the longer you're there, the harder it is to get you out. Now I have to try to defuse that warhead, so please, stay there. I'm sure that your wife is already furious enough at me; I don't want her to rip me apart because you were harmed.  
  
Fry: Okay Doc, I'll wait here.  
  
The Doctor studied him for a moment, then nodded his head, and pulled a small toolbox out of a side pocket, along with a long, electronic-looking wrench. He strode purposefully towards the missile, but to Fry, he didn't seem to be moving very fast, as if he was in a film being run in slow- motion. The Doctor sat down next to a small panel and positioned the wrench above a smoothly-rounded bolt. There was a whining noise, and the bolt slowly rotated. It fell out, and the Doctor continued to the next one, until all four had come out and the panel rested in his hand. He removed from the toolbox a small pen-like device, and replaced his glasses with a jeweler's monocle. He held the "pen" to the opening and peered inside.  
  
Fry looked down at Nibbler, who was looking back up at him and cooing nervously.  
  
Fry: Hey little guy, don't worry, we'll get back in time for you watch Sesame Street. I know you like Elmo - so did I when I was young - well, at least back when I was in high school. I still wonder why.  
  
Fry stopped when he heard a rough noise, and looked up to see the Doctor slowly perambulating back to the console.  
  
Fry: What's up Doc? Did you disarm the thingy, so you can take me back home and I can tell Leela about all the stuff that's happened?  
  
Doctor: (Sighing) No, I'm afraid not. It has a fail-safe device. If I were to tamper with the program, then the device would detonate; if I attempt to shut it down by destroying the hardware, it would also detonate. It's a beautiful dilemma: whatever I do to it, will cause it to explode.  
  
Fry: So, we're boned?  
  
Doctor: 'Boned?' Oh, well, I guess that's one way of.of... Hmm! I could try that; I'm not sure what would happen, but it might work.  
  
Fry: What, what'll work?  
  
Doctor: Well, I could find a nearby black hole, and fly the TARDIS up to the event horizon, and then dematerialize, leaving the missile in place, and fly the TARDIS away. The missile would detonate, and the tremendous forces around the black hole would keep the blast from escaping; instead, it would slowly feed the black hole for a few centuries. There's only one problem: if the TARDIS were to get too close to the event horizon, we might not escape either.  
  
Fry: You mean, we'd get pulled in too?  
  
Doctor: Yes. The TARDIS has nearly limitless power, but a black hole has unlimited gravity. If we were to get trapped there, I'm sure we could stave off destruction for several centuries, but it would happen sooner or later. Still, the Earth would be saved, and that's what counts in the long run, right? Time will tell, I always say.  
  
Fry: Okay then, let's do it  
  
The Doctor grinned and, turning to the controls, set the TARDIS in motion. As Fry watched the rotor in the middle of the console travel up and down, he heard another noise behind him. Turning his head, he saw that the crack in the nose cone had enlarged. Light was pouring out of it. Fry called the Doctor's attention to it.  
  
Fry: Hey Doc, what's going on there, I thought you slowed down time in here, so that thing wouldn't go off.  
  
Doctor: Yes, well, as I'm moving the TARDIS, I have to divert power to the drive engines, which means that I'm taking it away from the time field. Consequently, time in the console room is slowly returning to normal. Judging from the rate of expansion, I'd estimate that the explosion will reach us in about seven minutes.  
  
Fry: Uh-oh, how long until we get to this black hole thingy?  
  
The Doctor turned and looked down at the console, then back up at Fry, his face grim.  
  
Doctor: About ten minutes.  
  
Fry: (Stunned) You mean, that thing's going to blow us up three minutes before we get there?  
  
Doctor: That's about the gist of it. The only way that I can get us there any quicker is to turn off all the fields in the TARDIS, with the exception of the time field here in the console room. That would possibly give us a few more minutes. However, it would leave us defenseless against any outside forces, such as meteors, Chronovores, and the like.  
  
Fry: Well, at least we'd have a better chance that we have now, right?  
  
Doctor: (Grinning) Well said, Fry! Yes, we always have to try, because while there's life there's hope.  
  
The Doctor circled the console, flipping switches and twisting dials, and Fry noticed that the rotor was moving up and down more rapidly, while the room grew dark and chilly.  
  
Doctor: There, let's see, it looks as though we've gained about three minutes. We should arrive in about five minutes, and the detonation will reach us in.five minutes.  
  
Fry: That's cutting it awful close, isn't it, Doc?  
  
Doctor: Well, I'll just have to do it by the seat of my pants, as they say.  
  
He grinned at Fry, who found that he was grinning back; his enthusiasm was infectious to say the least. The minutes counted down, and as Fry watched, the light slowly spread out from the warhead until it was almost upon them.  
  
Fry: Hey Doc -- I hope we're almost there, because I don't think we have much time left.  
  
Doctor: Any second now, any second.and hold on again, Fry, because here we go!  
  
With that he twisted a knob, and as Fry held on to the console as tightly as he could, the room slowly started to tilt, then shook violently, even as the Doctor continued to quickly move around the console. Just as Fry felt as though he would vibrate apart, the room turned white, and --  
  
Five minutes ago on Earth  
  
The two Leela's walked back to the park bench and sat down, looking at the empty spot together.  
  
They heard a grinding noise, which gradually grew louder, and Fry's Leela gaped for a moment as the air in front of her swirled violently, and the dingy blue box slowly materialized in front of them, finally reaching full solidity with a "thunk". The door opened, and Leela Turanga Fry experienced one of the most joyous moments of her life, as her husband stepped nonchalantly out, carrying Nibbler in his arms.  
  
Fry: Hey Leela, did you miss -  
  
His words were cut off as Leela briefly picked him up in a bear hug and kissed him hard.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Fry, I love you, but you're also the biggest moron ever! Don't you ever scare me like that again, ever!  
  
Fry: I'm, I'm sorry hon, but everything's okay now. Earth's safe, the kids are safe, and.you're safe, and that's what mattered to me the most.  
  
Fry's/Leela: (Holding him still) Damn it, you can make me so angry sometimes, and then you say something like that just to remind me why I love you so much!  
  
Doctor's/Leela: Excuse me, please, but did something happen to the Doctor? Why hasn't he come out?  
  
Fry: Oh, he said something about a dimensional something or other, I wasn't paying attention after he opened the door.  
  
Just as the Doctor's Leela turned to go inside, the Doctor stepped out, looking a bit frazzled, but otherwise as well as ever.  
  
Doctor: Hello, Leela, and before you say anything, I'm very sorry, I just did what I thought was right at the time. I didn't want you to be hurt in any way.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: You should have asked me first, Doctor. I am a grown woman, and can make my own decisions. I do understand your concern, but I am no longer a child; I never was when I was with you.  
  
Doctor: I'm sorry Leela, please forgive me.  
  
Doctor's/Leela: I can, but I'm not so sure about her.  
  
She pointed at the couple next to them, where Leela had just let go of Fry, who had been talking quietly to her. She slipped out of his arms and stalked towards the Doctor, fury mounting with each step. He braced himself.  
  
Fry's Leela: Fry told me what happened, how you didn't know he was on board, and that you couldn't bring him back before you tried your stunt. I've been waiting here, thinking of ways to kick your ass when you came back. I still want to! But after hearing what Fry said, I know you had our best interests at heart, so I won't, if.  
  
Doctor: ...If I tell you who tried to destroy the Earth?  
  
Fry's/Leela: That's right, so I can go and kick their ass instead! No one tries to hurt my family, I mean no one, and gets away with it. I want to know who it was, now.  
  
Doctor: Well, I can't tell you who it was, but I can say where the missile originated. Sector 27, in deep space.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Sector 27, that's pretty much a void, there's hardly anything there but dust and clouds. Who'd launch something at Earth from there?  
  
Doctor: I don't know, but I'm going to go there and find out.  
  
Fry: Well, we're going to come with you, and don't say we aren't! You can just bring us back again a few minutes after we leave, right?  
  
Doctor: Yes, but.what about your children, your friends and jobs? I can't ask you to follow me into what might be incredible danger.  
  
Fry's/Leela: Ha! You should see some of the things we do on a weekly basis, and we'll burn any other crew that thinks they can survive better than us.  
  
The Doctor looked over at his Leela, then sighed; it was obvious that he wasn't going to talk them out of it. He glanced at Nibbler, who lowered his eyes for a moment before looking back at him and nodding in the affirmative. He opened the door and the group filed inside, and then the familiar sounds of dematerialzation filled the air for a moment, before the box vanished from sight.  
  
In another darkened control room, far away, several large figures stood around a console that projected a holographic image of Earth. A silvery hand reached over and turned a knob, and the view changed to that of space. The figures stared at the picture for a moment, before they turned as another being entered the room, one even larger than the others. It spoke in a deep, faintly distorted mechanical voice.  
  
Figure 1: Report  
  
Figure 2: The Doctor has saved the Earth from our weapon and is on his way towards our location. Estimated arrival time, 17.4 minutes. Soon we will meet the Doctor again, and gain revenge upon him for our past defeats. The secrets of time will be ours at last. . The other figure seemed to consider what had been said, and then raised its arm, fist clenched.  
  
Figure 1: Excellent!  
  
To be continued 


	4. Leela Squaed part 4

Leela squared

Part 4

_Figure 1: Report_

_Figure 2: The Doctor has saved the Earth from our weapon and is on his way towards our location. Estimated arrival time, 17.4 minutes. Soon we will meet the Doctor again, and gain revenge upon him for our past defeats. The secrets of time will be ours at last._

_The other figure seemed to consider what had been said, and then raised its arm, fist clenched._

_Figure 1: Excellent!_

The TARDIS continued its tumbling flight through the vortex. Inside, the Doctor was showing Fry and Leela around some of the corridors and the rooms that branched out from them.

Doctor: Now, Fry, which room did you say that you found the sheep in?

Fry: Well, I thought it was the one down here, right after the room with an empty white void with a monster thingy flying around inside it.

Doctor: (Grasps Fry's arm) You didn't let it out, did you?

Fry: Nah, I closed the door before it could reach me. It acted awful crazy and stuff, like it was stuck in there.

Doctor: It probably is. You see, that creature was the master of an alternate Earth that I visited before, one where the Roman Empire never fell. It was a bloody, horrific place, where life was cheap by any standard. I helped the populace to depose the creatures, and set them on the path to their own freedom. That creature tried to eat me, and I tricked it into one of the spare dimensions that I keep around the TARDIS. It's been trapped in there ever since. I actually need to return to Shada one day, and deposit it in a cell there, but it seems that I keep getting sidetracked.

Fry's Leela: Doctor, you said that you have had eleven bodies so far. Just how old _are_ you then?

Doctor: I'm a Time lord. I could just say that I walk through eternity, but in more simple terms, I'm closer to 2,500 years old now than I was last year. Even though that may seem old to you, the normal life expectancy on my planet is around 12,000 years. To get that old, though, you have to more or less sit around, not doing much of anything. I simply detest sitting around, so I decided to go out into the universe, and try to do something.

Fry: You mean that you're an adventurer, like Indiana Jones or something?

Doctor: Well, not originally. My granddaughter and I simply wanted to explore for a while, and the old ship that I "borrowed" seemed like the perfect thing. Then we landed on Earth, and met some humans, who became my companions. During the course of my time with them, we had a lot of adventures and, somewhat grudgingly, I started to help out more and more, until it became second nature to me.

Fry's Leela: But how do you know that you're always doing the right thing, Doctor? Aren't you worried that you may change the course of a planet's history, for the worse?

Doctor: (Somberly) Of course I do; still, I find that I must follow my conscience as it leads me. I make mistakes all the time. I simply try, as one of my old companions used to say, to do the best I can.

The conversation was interrupted by a voice from the control room

Doctor's Leela: Doctor, the instruments say that we're almost at the coordinates that you set. We'll be materializing a few minutes from now.

The Doctor's Leela had barely finished speaking before the Doctor came back into the console room. Flipping a switch, he turned towards the others and motioned for them to look at the wall. As they stared, it seemed to become transparent, and they were looking out into the time vortex. Fry and Leela gaped at the sight. There was a field of blue that swirled and spun with frightening speed; occasionally, there was a glimpse of something white that resembled a giant bird. As they stared, a whole flock of them appeared, heading in the general direction of the TARDIS.

Fry: (Glancing at the Doctor) What are those things, Doc?

Doctor: Chronovores, time-eaters. I wonder where and when they're in such a rush to get to. You see, Chronovores travel to worlds that have died, either naturally or unnaturally, and eat the remnants of time that still exist around them. One was captured by one of my oldest enemies several centuries ago, and it helped cause the destruction of mythical Atlantis.

Fry: Atlantis? You mean that place that's supposed to have sunk in the ocean a long time ago? You were there?

Doctor: I'm a time traveler, I've been to lots of places and times, some real, others lost to history forever, and others still that never existed, except in the lore of mankind. Still, maybe it's for the best if I park the TARDIS for a moment and let them pass.

Fry's Leela: Why, could they be a danger to us?

Doctor: No, no, well, they can be, I mean, not usually. Best not to take chances sometimes, hmm?

They watched as the forward motion of the ship slackened and ceased. The bird-like creatures surrounded the TARDIS for a moment, only to move on seconds later. The Doctor breathed a sigh of relief, then pulled up short.

Doctor: No, not her... not now!

The others turned to where the Doctor was looking. One of the bird-like creatures hung motionless outside the ship. It appeared to be a combination of a bird and humanoid form; then, as they watched, it began to glow, softly at first, then ever more brightly with each moment. As the Doctor's Leela turned back to him, she saw that he had his hands at his side, his head bowed. Just as she started to ask him what was happening, the glow outside the ship exploded in a flash of brilliant intensity, and there was a strange woman standing with them in the console room. She was completely nude, and, Fry noticed, very beautiful. Her long hair shone like sunlight, and her whole body glowed with a luminescence that was initially painful to look at, but then softened to a pale sheen.

Woman: Hello, Doctor. It has been so long since last we met. You still retain the fire that attracted me to you, oh those many centuries ago. Are you as well as ever?

Doctor: (Grim-faced) Hello Kronos. It has been a long time, though not nearly long enough for me, I'm afraid to say.

Kronos: (Laughing) Oh, Doctor, you do go on so. I should think that you'd be pleased to see me. After all, in our last encounter-

Doctor: Don't say it! Our last encounter was something that should never have happened, and never will again. Where are you and your fellow Chronovores in such a hurry to now? Some world that's died, and all of you have to go and pick at the pieces of it?

Kronos: Doctor, you should not be so bitter. Things have happened for a reason, and our encounter had a greater purpose behind it. I hope that you will at least remember it in the way that it was meant, fondly, and freely given.

Doctor: I understand, Kronos, but it was something that should have never occurred. However, even that does not excuse my rudeness to you; I apologize to you, my lady.

Kronos: Oh Doctor, I can never stay angry with you. There will always be a fondness in my heart for you, and who knows what will happen to you in the future? Oh yes, _I'll_ know.

Kronos gently touched the Doctor's face, though when he turned his head away momentarily, a flash of anger crossed her face, quickly replaced with a look of gentleness. The Doctor looked into her eyes again, and Fry's Leela saw him swallow heavily. The look in his eyes had become gentler, and she knew there was a great deal of history between these two.

Doctor: I'm sorry for what happened between us. Goodbye, Kronos, may we never meet again.

Kronos: (Laughing) Oh Doctor, my dear Doctor, _ever_ the optimist.

The woman turned away from him, and the glow of her body blinded everyone for a moment. When they could see again, the humanoid bird hung outside the TARDIS, only to move off and quickly recede in the distance. The others stood looking at the spot where it disappeared, then turned back towards the Doctor, who seemed absorbed with some readout on his console. After a moment he pushed a button, and the TARDIS resumed its forward motion. They were bursting with questions, but a glance from the Doctor stopped them.

Doctor: It's something that I'm not prepared to talk about, maybe not ever, so I would appreciate it if you didn't mention it, please.

The others considered this for a moment and then turned aside, but Fry's Leela noticed that the Doctor's companion looked hurt, though whether it was by the encounter or his last statement, she wasn't sure. She silently released a breath when she saw the Doctor and his Leela looking at each other understandingly.

Fry: Hey, is this where we're supposed to be?

Fry's Leela turned to him and saw that he was looking at the view screen, where they appeared to have dropped out of the vortex. As she stared harder, she saw a glimmer, and then a shape came into view. It resolved itself into a doughnut shaped object, and then she realized what it was.

Fry's Leela: A space station, it's a space station.

Fry: Wow, it's huge too. That thing looks about the size of the Nimbus.

As the TARDIS hung in space, the station slowly spun about its axis, and then another ship came into view, connected to one of the docking ports.

Doctor's Leela: What kind of ship is that, and why is it so _garish-looking?_

The ship she was looking at was a collage of bright colors, and while it was vaguely needle-shaped, it still looked bloated somehow. As they moved closer, they could see the DOOP emblem on the tail fins.

Fry's Leela: Wait, that's the DOOP emblem. Could this be some secret base of theirs? If so, why would they do something like send a missile at the Earth, unless they're renegades, or…

Fry: Or maybe they're working with some other race, like the Omicronians.

Doctor: So many questions. Well, we'll never find any answers until we go onboard, and see what's there.

The TARDIS faded from sight, and the station hung in space by itself again, a mute witness, saying nothing to anyone.

Within the selfsame station, Zapp Brannigan and his adjunct were walking down a dank passageway.

Zapp: Kif, why isn't there anyone here to greet me? I'm the greatest hero in the DOOP, and I've brought their greatest enemy to them, or at least I let them know he was here.

Kif: Greatest enemy? Sir, what are you talking about? What enemy do you mean, and who are they? What are you doing on a DOOP space station that hasn't been commissioned yet?

Zapp: All good questions Kif, all good questions.

Zapp said nothing else, continuing down the darkened corridor, while Kif fell behind, thinking to himself. What was the Captain doing here, and this enemy, who was it? Just then he noticed that Zapp was no longer nearby. Kif rushed ahead, and saw Zapp standing over a man in a DOOP uniform, sprawled on the floor.

Zapp: All right, you lazy bum, on your feet when there's a Captain present! Come on, stand up, I don't have all day to look good and make you fear me. Ah, come on Kif, and put this awful excuse for a soldier on report, we've got to find them. I have a reward to claim.

As Zapp walked past, he gave the man a swift kick. Kif shuddered as he watched the body roll loosely; he could put him on report, but he'd never pay any mind to it. He looked closer at the soldier, and felt his skin rise up in flarnbumps. Something was really wrong here, and he had a feeling that he'd pay for it with his life, if he didn't do something, and do it soon. Just then, he heard a voice from down the hallway.

Zapp: Kif! Hurry up and get over here, I've got to look as good as possible when I meet them, and I want to be sure that my uniform looks perfect. Oh, and I need you to shine me up as well!

Kif stopped for a moment, puzzled by what Zapp had said, then sighed and left the body where it lay. Maybe there'd be a chance to figure things out, hopefully in time for him to see his precious snowflake of love, Amy, at least once more. He had developed a very bad feeling about this place, and his feeling was usually correct. Kif disappeared around the corner, and all was quiet..

Kif: Oh my God above, NO!

In another part of the station a now-familiar grinding noise built to a crescendo as the TARDIS materialized. Inside the vessel, the Doctor clapped his hands together and looked at the others.

Doctor: Well, no sense in doodling about; let's go and see what's out there.

Fry's Leela: Wait, aren't you even going to check if there's anything wrong out there? Radiation, poisoned atmosphere, that sort of thing?

Doctor: What? Oh, I did all that just a moment ago.

Fry: You did?

Doctor: Of course I did, you just didn't see me do it, that's all. Now, let's go for a quick look 'round, and then we'll come back here, all right?

The others nervously nodded in the affirmative, and the Doctor opened the main doors. As they walked outside, he quickly held his arm up, then let it fall to his side. He did this twice more before noticing the stares of the others.

Doctor: Just a standard gravity check… It appears to be around Earth point-nine or thereabouts. Easy enough for us to move around with no problems, and the atmosphere seems fine, albeit a little cool.

As he said that, both Fry and Leela noticed that it was a little chilly in the passageway. They could see each other's breath, though the Doctor's and his Leela's was hardly noticeable at all.

The Doctor's Leela saw the pair looking at them, and walked over.

Doctor's Leela: It's nothing extraordinary. Time Lords simply have a lower body temperature than humans, around 20 degrees Celsius; well, that, and we can control how our bodies react to outside environments.

Fry: Man, you guys have got it all.

Doctor: Not nearly as much as some races; you should see how a Rutan lives.

With that, the Doctor set off at a brisk pace, with the others finding themselves having to hurry to keep up. They continued down the corridors, finally turning onto a hallway where some statues stood in the shadows. Ahead, the Doctor came to a sudden stop.

Fry's Leela: What's wrong, why'd you stop all of a sudden? Is there something…

She trailed off as she saw the Doctor bend to examine a couple of still forms. She gathered herself and walked over beside him, flanked by Fry and the Doctor's Leela. They were DOOP soldiers. Their high collars didn't quite cover purplish bruises.

Doctor: Hmm, necks are broken from the look of it. They took a hard fast blow from the back; probably didn't know what hit them. That's odd; look at this.

Fascination overcoming distaste, they leaned forward to see where the Doctor was pointing. Fry saw it first: the marks looked vaguely like handprints.

Fry: But if those are handprints, then what hit 'em? Some kind of a robot?

Doctor: Not a robot, not exactly anyway. I've seen blows like these before, in several encounters with these creatures, even when I was on Earth with your parents, Leela.

Fry's Leela caught her breath; the Doctor had been on Earth and visited her parents when…

Fry's Leela: You, it was you that came to Earth, in that multi-colored coat! My parents told me about it several years ago. They were some kind of giant robots, and you helped beat them, didn't you?

Doctor: Yes, I met Morris and Munda some years ago, before you were born. Not too long before I departed, they fell in love, and since I was the one that helped them beat those creatures back, they said that if they had a child, they wanted me to be it's - er - "god-father". I agreed, and when asked what name I liked, I told them I'd always thought that "Leela" was a nice one. I suppose they took this to heart. Then when I came back for another visit, just after you'd been born, they had another small emergency in which I was of some assistance. By the way, you were a very cute baby.

Fry's Leela was thunderstruck. The Doctor was her godfather, and he'd suggested her name to her parents! But then, where had she seen him before, and what had he done when he visited her parents the last time? Leela started to ask, when Fry spoke up.

Fry: What were these robots then, Doc?

Doctor: They weren't really robots: they used to be humanoids who had decided that the only way they could extend their life-span was to cybernetically convert their bodies, and they continued to do this, until they were more machine than biological anymore. Now they call them…selves…

The Doctor looked around agitatedly, then gestured frantically at the others to go back the way they had come. Fry gasped then, because the statues against the wall had started to move smoothly and slowly toward them. As Fry stared, it seemed like his dream all over again. As the statues came into the light, Fry heard his wife gasp, echoing his own. The "statues" were roughly man-shaped, though they were bigger than any man he'd ever met. They stood over seven feet in height, and were covered in a sort of silvery metal skin, that looked like it had silvery blood vessels running all over it. There was an upside-down triangular assembly on the chest, with lights blinking inside, but the most fascinating, yet disturbing feature was their heads. Their faces, if you could call them that, consisted of two round eyeholes covered with a silver mesh; there was no nose, and the mouth was a simple slit, with a transparent area at the bottom. Instead of ears, there were blocky protrusions fitted with silver pipes, which bent upwards and ran back into the top of the head. Perhaps their most frightening attribute was their silence, which made them seem less like living beings, than ghosts. Throughout all of this, the Doctor had stood still, as though waiting for something. His wait was short-lived; more of the creatures came down the hallway, and before long, one, black-piped and larger than the others, stood before the Doctor. It spoke, in a distorted, mechanical voice.

Figure 1: It has been many years since we last encountered you, Doctor.

Doctor: Funny, that. I thought that we wouldn't meet again: I'd have thought that you'd have all died out by this century.

Figure 1: No, Doctor, the Cyber-race will continue.

Doctor: Where are my manners? Fry, Leela, and Leela, I'd like you to meet some very old enemies of mine. These are the beings that I helped your mother and father fight, Leela. They call themselves…Cybermen.

Another Cyberman came up to the leader, and leaned towards it for a moment. The two appeared to confer, then it stepped back, and the leader addressed the Doctor.

Cyberleader: You will accompany us. If you or your companions attempt to escape, then the consequences will be severe.

The others looked to the Doctor, who nodded his head, and set off in the direction the leader indicated. The Cybermen fell in around the group, and as they walked, the Cyberleader came up beside the Doctor and looked down upon him.

Cyberleader: Well, Doctor, it has been many years now, but finally the Cyber-race has trapped you. We have had many challenges from you, but our game is now at an end.

Doctor: Well, you seem to have become positively chatty over the years; have you received an upgrade in your programming, Leader? Trying to be a more positive example for the troops, hmm?

Cyberleader: It has been determined that in order to better understand animal organisms, it was necessary to upgrade our logical imperatives. These are the same imperatives that have kept the cyber-race from extinction.

Doctor: But what's the use of it, eh? I mean, what's the use of your race's continued survival? You say that emotions are a weakness, I say they enhance life. You continue to try and conquer the galaxy, when there are much more powerful races that would destroy you without hesitation, and it seems that the only reason you want to do this is because you have no emotions to appreciate what you have. You don't even have a controller anymore.

Cyberleader: Incorrect. The Controller survives still.

The Doctor stopped.

Doctor: That's impossible. I was there on Telos; I saw him destroyed in the explosion. The Controller could not have survived.

Cyberleader: But he did survive, Doctor, and he wishes to meet you now.

The Doctor resumed his stride, and the Leader fell into step alongside him, though nothing more was said between the two.

Fry's Leela watched this exchange with annoyance, and turned toward the Doctor's Leela.

Fry's Leela: What were they talking about? They act more like old friends than enemies!

Doctor's Leela: I know, and that makes me very worried indeed. The Cybermen have had the Doctor on an eradication list for the last 1200 years, so why would they even do any of this? Something is different, but I don't know what.

Fry: Hey, where'd these Cybermen guys come from anyway?

Doctor's Leela: I only know what I have learned from the universal histories, but I will tell you. The Cybermen were originally from Earth's twin planet, Mondas. When a small planetoid came into orbit between the two, Mondas was broken from its orbit, and thrown into space. To survive the chaos and the increasing distance from the sun, the Mondasians turned to cybernetic conversion of their bodies. In order to become more "perfect," as they saw it, they also had operations on their brains, which allowed them to tie in computers which would give them more thinking power. Unfortunately, a side effect of this was that their emotions were erased. The Mondasians formed into two groups, and one of these built rocket ships, in order to colonize other planets if they could. The others continued onward, using the inner power of their planet to keep themselves alive, and they did so, until Mondas returned to Earth in 1986.

Fry: 1986! I don't remember any planet coming to Earth back then!

Doctor's Leela: There were several alien invasions in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, but the governments of your planet kept them a secret. When Mondas returned, the Cybermen there attempted to drain the energy of your planet to theirs, but the Earth's energy was too much, and Mondas evaporated from the strain. The other Cybermen made their way to a planet called Telos, and quickly subjugated the humanoids living there, using their cryogenic technology for their own purposes. That planet became their home base for centuries, until the Doctor returned there, and helped destroy the Cyber-Controller, their leader. The last of the Cyber race was supposedly destroyed in the late 28th century by a coalition of planets. Still, it appears that they have somehow managed to survive, as well as evolve into a newer, and apparently more powerful form.

Fry's Leela: Do they have any weaknesses we can use against them? How about-

She paused as the Doctor and his escorts came to a halt in front of a set of double doors. The one called "Leader" pressed a button and the doors opened wide, and the group proceeded into the room. She gasped, as she saw…

Zapp Brannigan: Well, well, well, if it isn't the lovely Captain Leela. Surprised to see me, my one-eyed boobalicious babe? I sent my assistant Kif to prepare my new _Lovenasium, _especially asI couldn't wait for us to share another night of passion, and I know that you can't wait to get rid of that redheaded geekazoid. Why don't we go ahead and spend a little time together now, my purple-haired darling of space?

Fry: (Furious) You shut your mouth, you stupid shit! I'm fed up with you trying to bother Leela, and I'm going to end it now!

Fry swung his hardest punch, straight into Zapp's stomach. And...Zapp just grinned. As Fry hauled back for another try, there was a blur of motion, and his fist was trapped in Zapp's. The grip tightened.

Fry: Yaaaah!

The pain was incredible. Fry pulled as hard as he could, but Zapp, as motionless as a rock, squeezed more, the smirk on his face growing wider by the moment. Leela ran to him and pulled on Zapp's arm, with no effect whatsoever.

Fry's Leela: Zapp, stop it! Stop hurting him, now!

Zapp looked at her for a moment, then turned his attention back to Fry. Leela could hear bones grinding in Fry's hand, and turned to Zapp in desperation.

Fry's Leela: Zapp, if you let him go, then I'll, I'll…become your woman. I'll leave Fry, and become your queen, if you'll just stop hurting him!.

Fry: (Anxiously) Leela, no! Don't do that; I'll let him kill me first, before I let you sacrifice yourself to him. Hilly and Davey need you, I need you, and I...argh!...won't let you do this!

The Doctor stepped up to Zapp and fixed him with a penetrating stare.

Doctor: What did they promise you, hmm? Riches, power, all the female companionship you'd ever want, I suppose.

Zapp let go of Fry's hand, and turned to face the Doctor.

Zapp: I get all of the beautiful women I want, as well as the lovely Captain Leela. They promised me that I would be the Emperor of Earth, when they take it over.

Doctor: (Laughing out loud) Emperor of Earth? You! You couldn't be emperor of a sandcastle, much less the Earth!

The Doctor turned back to the Cyber-Leader, looking at him incredulously, while Zapp fumed behind him.

Doctor: You promised this moron that you'd make him Emperor of Earth! Oh my, I guess that there _are_ all kinds these days.

Cyber-Leader: If it allows us to move aggressively, Doctor, then of course, we will promise anything, and the human was so willing to betray his planet for the reward that he thinks he will receive, that he allowed us to make certain adjustments to him, with his own consent. That is not the case in most humanoid conversions.

There was silence for a moment, then Zapp spoke up.

Zapp: Hey, I've helped get things ready for your invasion of Earth, and the Doctor's here now. Why don't you just kill him? In fact, I've always wanted to try and kill someone myself.

Doctor: (Turns back to Zapp) Humph. So you like what they've done to you, is that it?

Zapp: Of course! Look at the beautiful shiny silver color they are, and now they've given it to me as well.

As Zapp spoke, he took off his glove, and Leela gasped, for his hand was constructed of the same silvery metal as the Cyberians'. He then ripped open his uniform shirt, exposing a chest of the same material, with a human-size version of the Cyber-chest unit.

Zapp: You see, I'm guaranteed virtual immortality, and I have this new sleek look as well. Doesn't it make me look even sexier than ever, my captain of the vessel of _love_?

Leela continued to cradle Fry's hands in her own, but turned her face away in a visible effort not to retch. When Fry took a step backward, her attention snapped back to see Zapp striding toward them. Then the Doctor stepped into his path.

Doctor: Really, that's most fascinating! Why, you'll be immortal, powerful, and the Emperor of Earth. And in exchange for that, all you had to do was give up your sexuality. I'm very impressed.

Zapp: (Pausing) What do you mean? Why, I'm sexier than ever before.

Doctor: Oh, not in the way you think! You see, Cybermen can only reproduce one way, by physically converting other humans into Cybermen, using a series of operations that change their body and mind. I imagine that you've retained your normal bodily functions, going to the restroom for example.

Zapp: (Panicky) No, they told me that I wouldn't have to worry about things like that anymore, it was just a distraction. But, I mean, I'm still able to enjoy myself, of course, I mean, I wouldn't have been anywhere near so foolish as to, as to…

He trailed off, stunned. The Doctor slowly shook his head.

Doctor: Even if they did leave you intact for the moment, when they finished the conversion, you would become a sexless creature. They only call themselves Cybermen because their original home was a strict patriarchal society, and it's one of the things programmed into them. There are no Cyberwomen, and they wouldn't start the job on you, only to leave it half-finished. I'm sorry, I truly am. You did betray the people of your planet, and while I find myself unable to have pity on you, I do have pity, for you.

Zapp: (Near Hysteria) No! That's not what they promised me! I would be able to have any woman I desired in the universe, because I'd be so sexy. They promised me, I'd be the Emperor of Earth! They promised me!

As the Doctor turned back to examine Fry's hand, his companion saw the Leader make two gestures, and two other Cybermen glided toward Zapp, who had started to weave uncertainly on his feet. As they took hold of Zapp on each arm and started to drag him off, the Leader spoke up.

Cyberleader: Promises made to aliens have no validity.

Even as the Leader spoke those words, Leela's eye widened as the Doctor mouthed them silently, as though he'd heard them several times over the years. When Zapp, who had started to blubber by this time, begged for his help, she shut her eye tightly and held onto Fry.

Leela: (Whispering) Good riddance.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and opened her eye to see the Doctor looking sadly at her.

Doctor: (While working on Fry's hand) Still we must forgive sometimes; you know, it's what keeps us above creatures like these.

Fry's Leela: He terrorized us, me, for nearly fifteen years. You were right before: I have pity for him, but I'll never have pity on him. He deserves this.

Zapp's pleas and cries for help faded as the Cybermen marched him down a hallway and through a door which closed behind them. The Leader turned to the Doctor and studied him silently for a moment.

Cyberleader: You knew long before that pitiful human did. You do know us as a race.

Doctor: I've fought you over a dozen times during the centuries, so yes, I've gotten to know you quite well.

A voice from the darkness caused the Doctor to turn his head sharply. As he stood up, another Cyberman came out of the shadows. This one was different from all of the others. He was even larger than the Leader, and instead of the handle-like pipes, his head was smooth, and constructed out of a transparent substance, with lights that flashed and swirled inside.

Doctor: The Controller! How did you survive the explosion? It ripped Telos Cyber Control apart. You should have been vaporized.

Controller: I was able to reach a spot of relative safety, Doctor, and from there, I used an emergency signal to contact other members of the race. I encountered a group of CyberNeomorphs, and used their technology to bring myself on-line again, though this body looks cruder than the current level of Cybermen. You have missed seeing me, I know, and I have waited to continue our game of death from so many years ago, Doctor.

Doctor: (Halting) There you go again, game of death? No Cyberman has ever spoken in any type of flowery language such as that. Why am I not convinced that this is all there is to it? You seem to be different somehow, especially since Cybermen don't participate in any types of games anyway, seeing as their logical minds wouldn't…

Controller: Yes Doctor, please go on.

Doctor: The Cyber mind is structured in a logical format, and games have no place in them. They can speak words, like love, fear, and revenge, but they don't really mean it. It has no place in their lives. But you, you seem different than the controller that I met before, you seem to be enjoying this, as if it almost really is a game to you. What I don't understand is what happened to you to make you so different that…

The Doctor halted, and walked over towards the Controller. Other Cybermen started to move to intercept him, but the Controller held up his hand, signaling them to halt. The Doctor stood in front of him, and stared hard into the emotionless face panel, as though he were looking for something, then quickly stepped back, his eyes narrowed.

Doctor: It's you, isn't it. I thought I'd left you trapped in that forcefield back in Blackpool centuries ago. You should never have been able to escape, as long as your brain still broadcast its waves.

Controller: It took me many years to solve your puzzle, Doctor, but solve it I did, and now, it is time for you to go to work on one of my own devising; either that, or I will make your companions go through it themselves.

Doctor: No, please. Let them depart for Earth safely, and I'll take on any challenge that you can dream up.

Controller: Ah Doctor, always thinking of others. It may well be the death of you someday, maybe sooner than you think.

Doctor: You know, you still retain that certain something, no matter what form you're in. Very well, then I'll take on your challenge, but please let my friends go.

Controller: No, Doctor, they will play as well: your team, against mine.

Doctor: (Rage building slowly) All right! Still, why don't you drop that insipid disguise? I'm sure that the Leader and his men would like to know what being they're actually helping, and it would be rude not to have you introduced to my friends as well.

The Controller laughed, and the other Cybermen started sharply at the sound. Then, as Fry, Leela, and the Doctor's Leela stared, the Controller began to metamorphosize, until he was a glowing ball of light for a moment, which then began to resolve itself into a new shape. After a moment, there was a new being standing in front of them; he was dressed in a deep blue robe with gold trim on the front and around the shoulders. He wore a blue hat with gold trim on his head. His hair was black, and slicked back, and his eyes were dark brown and looked full of mirth. Then he smiled, and the Doctor's own expression looked downcast, as though he knew that he was going to have a very difficult time with him. As Fry looked at him, he was reminded of pictures of Chinese mandarins that he'd seen in some of the world history books that he'd liked to look at back in school.

Doctor: It is you. I thought that I'd seen the last of you, but like a bad penny, you continue to turn up.

The Cyberleader grabbed the Doctor roughly by the arm and swung him around to face him.

Leader: What is this creature, and where is the Controller?

Doctor: I'm sorry, Leader, but I did destroy the Controller on Telos. This being simply took on his form, in order to gain your use for a while, and in order to get me into a place and time of his choosing. I must admit, I am impressed.

Stranger: Thank you, Doctor. You have always provided me with amusement, and I have been so loathe to simply letting you go. Why don't you introduce me to your lovely female companions, and this not-quite-bright boy?

The Stranger said this, even as he'd walked up to Fry's Leela, picking up her hand and giving it a chaste kiss. Leela shuddered (his touch was strange, as though he wasn't really there), and quickly took her hand back.

Doctor: Very well. Leelas, Fry, Cybermen, allow me to introduce you to one of the most dangerous and evil beings in this universe.

Stranger: Doctor, I am neither evil or dangerous, I am above such things. No my dear friends, I am simply a humble…_Toymaker_.


	5. Leela Squared part 5

Leela Squared

Part 5

_The Cyberleader grabbed the Doctor roughly by the arm and swung him around to face him._

_Leader: What is this creature, and where is the Controller?_

_Doctor: I'm sorry, Leader, but I did destroy the Controller on Telos. This being simply took on his form, in order to gain your use for a while, and in order to get me into a place and time of his choosing. I must admit, I am impressed._

_Stranger: Thank you, Doctor. You have always provided me with amusement, and I have been loathe to simply let you go. Why don't you introduce me to your lovely female companions, and this not-quite-bright boy?_

_The Stranger said this, even as he walked up to Fry's Leela, picking up her hand and giving it a chaste kiss. Leela shuddered (his touch was strange, as though he wasn't really there), and quickly pulled her hand back._

_Doctor: Very well. Leela, Leela, Fry, Cybermen, allow me to introduce you to one of the most dangerous and evil beings in this universe. _

_Stranger: Doctor, I am neither evil nor dangerous, I am above such things. No my dear friends, I am simply a humble…Toymaker._

Both groups stood in front of the strange figure for a moment, digesting what he had said to them. Then the Doctor clapped his hands together loudly, making his humanoid friends jump, and even causing the Cybermen to startle.

Doctor: Well, I've solved your guessing game, Toymaker, so I suppose we should be leaving now. I must get my friends back to their proper places in time-and-space you know, so if you don't mind…

Toymaker: But I do mind, Doctor! Please, you must stay and accept my hospitality for a short while. I have so many things to show you, and so many games to play.

Fry: Cool, so you play games all the time? That means you're probably pretty good, but if we played Internet Tag, I bet I could take you, because when I was playing with my wife - well, she was just my friend back then…

Fry's Leela: Fry! Focus honey, I don't think this person plays games like we do.

Toymaker: Nonsense my dear, I simply love all kinds of toys and games. I suppose that I've had a hand in creating almost every toy or game that's ever existed in this universe. Why, I should show you my workshop; you could see some of the souvenirs I've kept over the years. You might find some that intrigue you.

The Doctor started to move his companions to the door, even as the Cybermen started to come out of their shock and move toward the Toymaker.

Doctor: I'm sure they'd love to see your Toyshop someday, but we really should be leaving now.

Just then, the Cyberleader strode up next to the Doctor and grabbed him painfully by the arm.

Doctor: Oooh, do you mind, Leader? I'm rather attached to that arm, and would like to continue using it for a while longer.

Cyberleader: What is this creature? He appears in none of our memory banks, and yet he has the power to deceive Cyber-technology? This "Toymaker" has never been encountered by the Cyber-race, yet he appears to be more powerful than you are Doctor. Is he a Time-Lord like you?

Doctor: No Leader, not exactly, you see he's, well, he's more like a…

Toymaker: Please, Doctor, do not strain yourself, these creature are very primitive in their mode of thinking; however, they did have their uses. Please release the Doctor! I would not have him damaged before our game begins.

Cyberleader: The Doctor is an enemy of the Cyber-race, and if you wish him unharmed, then logically, you must be one as well. Eradicate this creature.

The Leader gestured harshly at one of the Cybermen standing nearest him, and it immediately started to close on the Toymaker, raising its weapon. While the others stared at the drama now taking place before them, Fry's Leela glanced at the Doctor briefly, and then did a quick double take. The Doctor was shaking his head sadly, as though he already knew the outcome.

The Toymaker stood his ground, the smile that had lit his face earlier back in full force.

Toymaker: How quaint! A forced charge plasma disruption weapon, one that I'm sure would be very dangerous if it were in the wrong hands. Still, every race must play its own games, I suppose. Please, do your worst.

With that, he stood with his arms out, and leaned his head back, the smile still on his face. The Cyberman hesitated for a moment, then stood its ground, and fired. Both Leela and Fry's ears rang from the discharge, but when they looked up, the Toymaker was still standing there, in the same position, with the same smile on his face.

Toymaker: Well, I'm waiting for your attack, then it'll be my turn…oh, you've already done so. Oh well, not a very interesting game to be sure, but now, _it's my turn_. Maybe…I know, I've needed a new piece to replace a pair of knights that I lost years ago, and these silver beings would make excellent replacements, but I'll need two of them. I'm sure you won't miss them, since you've destroyed your emotions anyway.

The Toymaker directed this last comment at the Cyberleader, and then made a small gesture with his hand; the Cybermen that had attacked him was jerked forward as though attached to an invisible wire. Then one of his compatriots was jerked out of the Leader's group as well, and both of them stood in front of the Toymaker, at rigid attention. The Toymaker smiled gently and waved his hand again, and then Fry heard one of the most appalling sounds he'd ever experienced.

They Cybermen were screaming. Not wailing or yelling, but screaming in agony, as their limbs jerked and moved into strange positions, then changed to others as the Toymaker stood before them, shaking his head as though unsure of the _look_ that he wanted. Finally he stopped and eyed them critically; seemingly unaware of the muffled sobbing that came from their faceplates, and then turned to the others.

Toymaker: Yes that will do very nicely indeed, don't you agree?

The Doctor's Leela stood in front of the Doctor, as though she were trying to shield him from the horror of the newly misshapen forms. The Cybermen had been remolded, and looked more like knights of medieval times than the modern creatures that they had previously resembled. Even as the group looked at them, they could see that the two beings were still desperately trying to move. The Doctor once again shook his head sadly, and nodded to the Toymaker.

Doctor: Torturing these beings should give you no pleasure, and yet, you continue to do so. You're like a small boy that pulls the wings off of flies, just to get a reaction from them, and from the others that see you do it. For the kind of creature that you are, your malice is still immeasurable.

Toymaker: Doctor, I assure you, I am above such things as malice. I am beyond what you define as good or evil. I simply want you, all of you, to play and enjoy my games. In fact, why don't we take a small side-trip, to a place just outside the time-stream?

Doctor: No, wait…

The next moment, they were simply…elsewhere. Fry's Leela blinked her eye for a moment, and then cautiously looked around her; it seemed that she was in some type of…workshop? At least it seemed like that at first glance, but as she became accustomed to her surroundings, she saw that the place was much bigger than she'd originally thought. In fact, much like the TARDIS. There wasn't a ceiling at all; it just seemed to go upwards, until it blended with what looked like a night sky. She caught her breath as a shooting star flew overhead; it _was_ the sky. There was the Big Dipper, but…it looked different, as if it were somehow _twisted. _She felt rather than saw Fry walk up beside her.

Fry: Um, Leela, we've definitely gone someplace stranger than usual.

Fry's Leela: It's okay, because we're going to get through this, just like we've gotten through everything else that life's thrown at us. I know we will, because we're together, and that's what always worked for us, and then…hey, where's Nibbler?

Fry: I don't know, we were on the TARDIS, and then I put him down, and he went scooting off to look at something on the other wall, and then…I don't remember.

Fry's Leela: Damn it, nothing had better happen to him! He was my first little cutie, and I'm not going to lose him either. If I can just get a chance to…

She broke off as the being that called himself the Toymaker approached her.

Toymaker: Hmm, intelligent, resourceful, physically capable, yes, she should be a good player, and you, you seem to be highly imaginative, creative, emotional, yes, you should do as well.

The Toymaker had directed this last aside at Fry, and he then turned to the Doctor's Leela, staring at her for a few moments, before smiling broadly.

Toymaker: Ah, you used to be a simple human, and you've now been modified into a partial Time Lord, interesting. However, I only have need of the Doctor, and two other members for his team, so what should I do with you, hmm? Tell me, have you ever played fizzbin?

Just as the Doctor's Leela started to speak, the Cyberleader chose that moment to interrupt.

Leader: What is the purpose of our having been brought here? You are obviously more powerful than the Cyber-race at this moment of history, and you also have no apparent need for manual laborers. The logical conclusion would be that you have brought us here to play your games. For what purpose are these to be played?

Toymaker: Ah, you mean, what are the stakes? Well, that's very simple. If you win, then you and your group will be returned to your customary time and place, and as an added bonus, the Doctor will be added to my menagerie, at long last.

As he said this, his voice dropped for a second, and a shadow flitted across his face. He turned to look at the Doctor, who was apparently explaining to his companions about some fascinating type of board game that they had found. Even as he turned back to the Leader, though, the Doctor quickly glanced at him, and grinned wryly for a moment before turning his attention back to Fry and the two Leela's.

Toymaker: But, if you were to lose, well, then you'll meet the fate of all beings that lose to me, and will instead join my happy family.

He gestured towards a wall, where all types of dolls, action figures and puppets hung against a wall. The Cyberleader casually glanced at them before turning to walk back to his troops. He did not notice that the eyes of the toys looked at him, all of them hideously alive for a single moment, alive, and pleading.

Meanwhile, the Doctor was gently talking to his companions, though that didn't belie the urgency in his voice.

Doctor: This is going to be very difficult, and there'll be a lot of dangers around here. The realm that we're in now is the Toymaker's own, and he has complete control over it. It responds to his own will: he has but to think of something, and it will exist. You must take care! Don't challenge him to a game, and don't accept anything from him, else you'll end up like those figures on the walls around us.

Doctor's Leela: Doctor, do you mean that those figures…

Doctor: Yes, they're all sentient beings that the Toymaker challenged at some point in time, and that lost to him. Oh, his games are fair, to a degree, and there's always a possibility that you could win, thought it's not very probable. The games are always rigged to the Toymaker's advantage, though he must give you some sort of chance. It's in his nature, twisted though it may be.

Fry's Leela: You mean, we'll have to play his stupid games? Well why don't we just kick his ass, and leave?

Doctor: It's not that simple. The Toymaker is… well, he's from another universe actually, the one that…

But before the Doctor could explain more, they heard a deep "thoom", and turned to see the Toymaker standing beside a large gong. As both parties turned toward him, he smiled again, then held up his hand, and wagged his index finger at the Doctor.

Toymaker: Now Doctor, there's no reason to yammer on about my origins since that's unimportant for what's going to happen with all of you. Now shall we play a game?

Doctor: Um, I think that we'd really rather not, please.

Toymaker: (Pouting) Oh Doctor, I'm sure that you'll agree that it's going to be great fun. Now, how about we play a game, or…

Doctor's Leela: Or what?

The Toymaker's eyes narrowed dangerously when she said that, then resumed their usual merry look.

Toymaker: Or…nothing will happen to you, ever again.

Doctor: I suppose that we're left with no choice then. All right, Toymaker, what game shall we play, tri-logic again, or maybe one of your more aggressive video games.

Toymaker: No Doctor, I think that we should play a fun game, one that you and your companions, as well as the Cybermen, will enjoy, well, at least as far as they can enjoy anything. It's called 'Capture the Flag', and I'm sure you know the rules. All you have to do is capture your opponents flag, and then make it from there to the goal. When you arrive, you'll be the winner, and be free to leave at any time.

Fry: What happens if you lose?

Toymaker: Why, you'll simply stay with me in my Toyshop, forever and a day.

Fry, Leela and Leela all turned to look at the Doctor, and he nodded.

Doctor: All right, Toymaker, let's play this game and get it over with. Only one thing: I want your promise, that if we win, then you'll not bother any of my other companions, ever again. I don't want to have to come back here in a few centuries for some reason, only to find that you've taken someone who's traveled with me as some sort of petty revenge.

Toymaker: Agreed, Doctor though you shouldn't worry about it. I'm sure you'll be here with me for a _very_ long time to come.

Doctor: (Scoffs) Yes, yes Toymaker, I'm sure that I'll provide centuries of amusement for you, if you win. However, I wouldn't count your eggs before they're scrambled.

The Toymaker looked at the Doctor quizzically for a moment, then looked around at his friends and enemies both.

Toymaker: Very well then, let the games begin…now!

At the word now, Fry's Leela found that she'd been tensing up for a moment, and then like before, simply found herself…elsewhere. She looked up and saw an entrance made up of two ornate double doors. A sign above them stated simply, _Start._ She sighed and turned towards Fry, who reached over and grabbed her hand warmly. She smiled at him and squeezed back for a moment, before she turned and glanced over at the Doctor's Leela, who had gone into a defensive crouch, already looking for attacks and areas of defense. The Doctor himself was standing before the double doors, eyeing them critically. She and Fry walked over to him, straining to hear what he was mumbling to himself.

Doctor: (Softly) Very nicely carved, beautiful mahogany, apparently from the Tan dynasty, a little garish, but what would you expect from that time period?

Fry's Leela stood there for a moment, looking at him in disbelief. Here they were in some kind of deadly game, where the stakes where higher than she'd have cared for, and the Doctor was going on about a pair of doors. For a moment she wondered if he'd gone crazy from the strain, when he suddenly turned back towards her, grinning.

Doctor: Just trying to get into my opponent's head for a moment. The Toymaker is supremely confident, and you know that that can sometimes lead to an adversary making mistakes.

Fry: Hey Doc, do you mind me asking, who, what is this Toymaker guy? I mean, is he an alien, you said something about him being from another universe, you mean a parallel one or…

He stopped as the Toymaker appeared before them again.

Toymaker: Ah yes, where to start? Very well, the object of the game is to capture the Cybermen's flag, and make it to the exit. Seems very simple for the most part, yes? Now, of course there'll be obstacles to get through, though for you, I've decided to make them more of the emotional sort. For the Cybermen, they'll be encountering obstacles of the more physical type. All four of you must complete the course, and make it back to the finish line; if that happens, then that team will be set free, and allowed to return to their customary time and place.

Doctor's Leela: So, how do we know that you'll live up to your end of the bargain? You will forgive me when I say that you don't seem to be a very trustworthy being.

The Toymaker smiled back at the Doctor's group for a moment.

Toymaker: Of course, you don't really know if I'm going to keep my end of the deal or not, but, in this case, you have no choice. If you refuse to play my game, then by my rules of challenge, you forfeit, and will become a part of my collection anyway. At least this way, you will have a fighting chance, though I must warn you, I hardly ever lose.

Fry: Except when you go up against the Doc here, huh? I'll bet you wished that…

He broke off. The Toymaker's face had gone dangerously dark, and his previous cheerful smile was now a shark-like grin.

Toymaker: The Doctor _has_ been Luck's favorite over the years. However, your dance with her will only last so long so long, Doctor, and maybe you'll have the opportunity to meet a new dance partner, sooner than you'd like.

Doctor: If you mean Lady Death, well, I've had the pleasure of her company more times than I can remember over the years, though it may be time for us to step onto the floor sooner than I'd originally planned. However, I still don't plan on meeting her anytime soon, so shall we commence our own dance, Toymaker?

The Toymaker laughed at this, and his face regained its earlier jovial expression.

Toymaker: Doctor, you always keep me entertained, and I know you will when you become a part of my collection. However, I do go on so. Let the games begin!

As the final word faded, the Doctor's Leela blinked, only to find that she was…someplace else again. She looked around, expecting to see the Doctor, only to find Fry standing beside of her, shaking his head and holding his stomach, as though he was about to be ill. He grimaced at her, and she smiled and took his hand in her own for a moment.

Doctor's Leela: It was a transference effect. You should feel better in a moment, just breathe normally, and the nausea should go away by itself.

Fry: Hooboy…where are we, and why aren't the Doc and my wife here?

As Fry asked this, Leela glance up, to see another set of double doors, just as ornate as the ones from a moment ago. Like the others, these bore a _Start_ sign.

Doctor's Leela: It appears that the Toymaker has decided that he wants to make the game a little harder for us. It looks like we'll have to find our way through the… whatever that he has planned for us without the Doctor's assistance. I imagine that he feels that you and I are not the smartest of the group.

Fry stood up straighter for a moment.

Fry: Yeah, well he doesn't know me then, because I smarter than I am…seem to think I was. Anyway, it's just a game of Capture the Flag, I used to play it all the time in school, and it's a fun game to boot. We shouldn't have a problem with this.

Doctor's Leela: I'm not sure. It sounded like things would be fairly straightforward, but from what I can discern from this being, things are never as simple as he would have us believe.

Fry: Well, we'll never find out until we start, huh? Let's go.

The two of them walked up to the doors, and with Fry taking a deep breath, they opened them, and stepped into the darkness that lay within.

While Fry and the Doctor's Leela were going through their doors, the Doctor and Fry's Leela had already went through theirs, and were progressing rapidly through what appeared to be a maze. While not running, the Doctor had a long stride, and was walking very fast; Leela found it hard to keep up without having to actually run.

Fry's Leela: Excuse me Doctor, but you haven't explained why we've gotten separated from my husband and your companion, and why we're moving so fast. The Toymaker said that this was going to be more of an emotional challenge.

Doctor: The Toymaker tells _a _truth, not all of _the_ truth. There's probably more than a simple emotional challenge waiting for us, and I suspect this maze is a part of it.

Fry's Leela: Where does this guy come from anyway? You started to tell Fry something about another universe, so I mean - what, is he from an alternate universe or something?

The Doctor paused to take a breath, and turned back and looked at Leela.

Doctor: No, he's not from an alternate universe. He's from the one that existed before this one.

Leela stopped moving completely, and sat down on the floor, looking stunned. The Doctor sat down beside her, and she looked over at him.

Leela: What do you mean, he's from the universe that came before this one? There's always been this universe, hasn't there?

The Doctor took off his glasses for a moment, and massaged his eyes.

Doctor: Actually, no. You've heard of the "Big Bang", correct? The theory that there was once a tremendous explosion of matter that propelled outwards from a central point, and eventually came to form what is now known as the universe?

Leela nodded, and the Doctor continued.

Doctor: However, that matter had to come from someplace, and even I don't know where it originally came from, but, for this universe, the matter that got it started came from the Big Crunch that happened when the universe that existed before this one collapsed in on itself. In that universe, there were also Time Lords, and as they realized the inevitability of their universe's destruction, most of them came to accept it. However, there was a group that decided they wanted…more. So, they worked, and calculated, and finally, they managed to survive. When they found themselves in our universe, they discovered that somehow, and I'm not sure how it happened myself, their powers had been increased exponentially. They were as close to god-like beings as a mortal creature could achieve, which is no small feat I should say. Well, after finding that they had developed these powers, they decided to test them out, on one another at first, and then, they turned to other worlds in this universe. The Toymaker was one of these beings.

Leela: If that's the case, then how have you ever been able to beat him? He could wipe you out with a snap of his fingers, right?

Doctor: Too true! However, they have been alive for billions of years, and you must realize, that living for that amount of time, even godlings will eventually become bored. So, they started to concentrate on their own areas of interest. The Toymaker enjoys games, and so, he's decided to play his games with others, and limits himself as he does so. I mean, what's the fun in being able to simply wipe your opponent from the field of play, and then simply go on and do it again with someone else. No, he likes to at least give his opponent a modicum of a chance, which makes his victory all the sweeter.

Leela: Have you met any others of these…beings in the universe?

Doctor: Oh yes, I'm sure you've heard of some of their names. Let's see, Dagon, the water god, Azaroth, also known as the Intelligence, and Cthulhu. You may have heard them referred to as the "Great Old Ones" at one time or another.

Leela: …And we can defeat them, him, the Toymaker? You know of a way we can do that, and save my husband and your friend? You mean you really know how to do that?

Doctor: Well, knowing how to do it and doing it, those are two different things. My dear, let me tell you something, knowing, knowing is easy. Everyone does that _ad nauseum._ Myself, I just sort of…hope. Now, let's see what the Toymaker has in store for us, hm?

With that said, the Doctor quickly stood up and dusted of his pants, and then offered his hand to Leela. After a moment's hesitation, she clasped it and pulled herself up. The Doctor leaned towards her, and gave her another of his dazzling smiles, then held his hand upwards for a moment.

Doctor: You see my dear, there are things that still work, including… misdirection!

With that, he opened and closed his hand, and Leela stood puzzled for a second as his top hat popped open in his grip. Placing it on his head at a jaunty angle, he turned towards her, and then reached up and pulled a card out of her ear.

Leela: Gee Doctor that was pretty lame, do you have a rabbit in your hat too?

Doctor: (Winking) Hm, maybe, or maybe a little something more. Shall we be on our way again? We don't want the Cybermen to reach the end of the course first you know.

The Doctor started walking his long stride down the hallways again, and after hesitating a moment, Leela followed him. She wasn't sure why she did, but like Fry before her, she just felt that she could trust him. And if Fry trusted him, well then, that would have to be good enough for her. The pair continued down the hallway, turned a corner, and disappeared from view.

In another part of the of the maze, the Cyber-patrol was steadily advancing, their sensors at full scan, searching for any sign of treachery, or surprises that the Toymaker might have in store for them. The Cyberleader held up his hand as a smaller scout returned from the area ahead of them.

Cyberleader: Report.

Scout: I have scouted ahead of our main patrol for 500 meters, Leader. There is nothing of interest or consequence to note, currently safe for travel.

Cyberleader: Excellent! We shall reach the end of this course, and the Doctor will finally be defeated. Then we shall return to Telos, and make plans on an acceptable way to convert this being to our own uses.

The patrol started down the hallway, when they stopped at the sound of the Toymaker's voice echoing around them.

Toymaker: Convert me to your own use! Strange, that sounds remarkably like a threat to me. Need I remind you of your position as pieces in my game? Enjoy, or at least as much as you can enjoy anything.

With that, the voice faded away, but something else appeared in the hallway ahead of the Cybermen. The something soon resolved itself into several distinctive shapes. Each had a pyramidal body with a dome at the top, with what appeared to be a cyclopean eye protruding from it. In the middle of the body, there were two more projections. One had a sucker at the end, and the other was definitely gun barrel shaped. As they came within clearer visual range, the color of the creatures could be seen to be a creamy white, with edges trimmed in gold. They looked like nothing so much as oversized pepper pots. However, were you to glimpse the contents, you would be horrified.

Five minutes ago

On Aslatian 4, the campaign was going well. While the enemy had inflicted severe damage on their Task Force, the leaders and their families had been found hiding in what was supposedly a barren desert. They had been taken and brought before the Supreme Leader to face judgment, though of course there was only one form of judgment in cases like this. The humanoids were rounded up and herded into a makeshift arena, apparently used for some kind of sports event, but now only a more convenient location for executions; it made it much easier to haul the bodies out. The leader of the extermination squad pulled up to a spot fifty meters away from the doomed, and read out a list of charges. It spoke in the same harsh, staccato voice as its compatriots.

Leader: You have…been found guil-ty of attacking our settle-ment on this world, caus-ing- the death of three mem-bers of the elite classes, and general dissen-sion. You are here-by sentenced to complete and total extermination, along with your com-plete families, any friends that you may have con-tac-ted, and anyone who was in the gen-er-al vicinity when you were arrested.

The people in the stands gasped. That was a total of about 10,000 people that were to be executed, this couldn't happen, they couldn't just sit there and let their own people be wiped out in front of them, could they? However, as the squad leader turned towards the crowd, all dissension ceased, and everyone quietly sat, no one yet willing to speak up against their harsh alien taskmasters. The leader turned back towards the condemned and spoke up again.

Leader: Sentence to be carried out, immediately. Exterminate! Exterminate! EXTERMINATE THEM ALL!

As it finished speaking, the squad opened fire, and the circle of people began to shrink as a score of them fell to the ground, while others attempted to escape somehow, while others fell on their knees, begging for mercy. The squad leader felt content when they did that, it made it much easier to hit them, and there was less confusion among the crowd in moments. Where once had stood close to 10,000 people, now there was only a huge smoldering pile of flesh and bones. The leader turned back to the others watching, and spoke once again.

Leader: You are witness to what happens when you attack us! Any further attempt at dissension will lead to another group of your race to be exterminated, only next time; it will simply be all of your children! You will obey! YOU WILL OBEY!

As the crowd started to file slowly out of the arena, the leader turned and faced its squad. Fear and terror, something that had to be instilled in these inferior races, was the best way to control them. Of course it would eventually not be enough, and the population would revolt completely. However, by that time, they would have picked this world clean of all valuable materials, and then it would be simple to have a gun-ship come in and annihilate the planet, making it uninhabitable for anyone besides their race. It looked towards the others of its own perfect kind, and they silently acknowledged its transmitted commands, and fell into pace with the leader, which turned and started trundling towards the exit. Just as they were almost there, the leader felt a sense of…displacement for a moment. It came to an immediate halt, while the squad halted behind him. Just as suddenly, a figure appeared in front of them, dressed all in royal blues trimmed with ornate golden dragons on its clothing. The leader stared at it for a moment, but it was when the figure spoke, that the memories came flooding back.

Toymaker: I see that you have done well on this world, you have managed to cow the population and have gained a tremendous amount of control, however, I have need of you in another area. You are to face another race, and if you can defeat them, as per our agreement, you will be returned to your customary time and place, if not, then you will continue to work for me. Go now, and do what you do best. Destroy them all, at once.

The leader looked at the Toymaker for a moment, and then its eyestalk drooped for a moment, and it spoke again.

Leader: I…obey.

The Toymaker smiled grimly, as if to say, "Of course you do," and vanished as quickly as he appeared. The Leader felt the sense of displacement again, and staring at its controls for a moment, found that it had moved not only in time, but space as well. If it were to escape this time, then it could tell the Emperor on Skaro what had happened, and they could prepare accordingly. It must win, it would win this time, and it would not fail! The leader turned to its squad, and transmitted instructions to them, and like the loyal soldiers that they were, they immediately acknowledged and were battle-ready. As it started forward on its new campaign, now named Venzri de Danilea, the Campaign of Freedom, it noticed that something had appeared in its sensor sweep. Switching to visual, it immediately located its current enemy. Calling on its onboard computer, it swiftly absorbed all information about the enemy.

Home planet: Telos

Race: Humanoid/Cybernetic fusion

Category: Neomorph

Identity: Cybermen

The leader immediately powered up its gun unit, and made ready for battle. This was what its race lived for, for only with purpose was there life, and for there to be life, all other inferior races must be completely exterminated, which in its case meant all life, organic, mechanical or otherwise. There could be only one race to rule the universe, and they were the ones destined to do so. The leader was unaware that the only reason that this was its way of thinking was that it had been instilled in them genetically by its original creator, Davros. However, for the here and now, that made no difference, it was what it was, and that was good enough. The leader transmitted silently to the others, and started forward. It was time to bring death upon its enemies, and they would triumph, they were Daleks! They would always triumph, and then they would…it stopped, for the leader of the Cybermen had caught sight of them in it visual sensors, and had halted its patrol. Realizing that it was becoming agitated, the leader turned its voice modulator to full power, and shouted out instructions, in order to bring the full force of Dalek intimidation to bear on the Telosians.

Dalek Squad leader: Cyber life forms! Weapons at maximum power! Exterminate them! Exterminate! EXTERMINATE!

Cyberleader: Daleks! Patrol, advance and eradicate them, at once!

The ancient enemies closed rapidly with one another, and the battle was joined.

While the Cybermen and Daleks fought, in another part of the maze, Fry and the Doctor's Leela were making good time in their travels, though neither of them had any clue as to where they were actually going. However, both of them had to admit they were getting there pretty quickly.

Fry: Whew! I don't ever think I was in this good a shape when I was younger. I'm glad Leela was there to help train me, she was always able to, to… oh man, what if she's been hurt, or worse? If this Toymaker guy is as strong as he seems, then I don't know how we're gonna be able to take him, and believe me, I've met some weird guys over the years.

Doctor's Leela: You must have…faith that things will work out for the best. The Doctor will do everything that he can, which in my experience is quite a lot, and I'm sure that your wife will do the same. One thing that he told me, when I had started to travel with him for the first time, was that while there's life, there's hope. I think that he may well have a plan that he is working on at this time, or at least trying to…work on. Let's see if he will be able to…oof! What are you doing, Fry?

Leela stopped and stared at what had caught Fry's attention. It was another set of doors, just as ornate as the last ones, but this time two signs said, _Fry _and _Leela._ The two of them stared for a moment more, and then Fry shrugged his shoulders and walked to the door with his name on it. Leela stared at him as he reached towards the knob, then shrugged her shoulders and approached her door as well. They looked at each other, and then turned the knobs, nervously sharing one last look before they went inside. After closing, the doors faded away, vanishing as quietly as a phantasm.

At the same time, the Doctor and Fry's Leela were rounding another corner. Leela was a little short of breath, but the Doctor appeared to be as fresh as he had when they had started on this journey.

Leela: Excuse me Doctor, but do you mind if we rest for a moment, I'm not as young as I used to be.

Doctor: None of us are as young as we used to be, but I suppose we can stop for just a moment, though we shouldn't take too long. The Cybermen don't have any need to rest, and if I know the Toymaker, while he may throw something in their path from time to time, they'll be as indomitable as usual. Oh well, ready to get going again, time waits for no pigeon, or… something like that.

Leela: Doctor, what do you think the Toymaker has waiting for us?

Doctor: Something very nasty, I'd wager, very nasty indeed.

The two started off again, and had turned another corner, when they came to a set of doors like the ones Fry and the Doctor's Leela had met earlier. These had the names _Doctor _and _Leela_ embossed in golden script. The Doctor slowly walked around them, placing his hands on them as though he were trying to feel something. After a few moments, he walked back over to Leela, who, eyeing them warily, had retreated a respectable distance.

Leela: I don't like it, it feels like a trap.

Doctor: I imagine it's something like that. Welcome to my parlor and all that. Oh well, we can try to go around it if you'd like; though I'm not sure it'll do any good.

With that, the two passed around the doors and continued around the next turn, only to find themselves staring at the same two doors again. The Doctor stopped and quickly turned around only to find that the corridor had disappeared, with only a blank wall behind them. After the Doctor cleared his throat, and Leela had turned around to see the same thing, she glanced nervously over, and summoning up her courage, started to walk by the doors, only to have them move with her. The Doctor moved in the other direction, and the doors moved in his direction, then suddenly, the doors expanded to fill the entirety of the hallway, and they knew that they were stuck.

Doctor: Well, it appears that we've no choice, hm?

Leela: I hate being forced to do anything, I wish that this Toymaker would pop up in front of us now, just so I could get one shot to his nose.

Doctor: I understand and sincerely empathize, my dear, but we have no choice for the time being, since the Toymaker's calling the shots. Oh well, shall we?

The Doctor gestured towards the doors, and Leela stepped forward, and with a deep, shuddering breath, pulled them open, revealing blackness inside. The Doctor peered over her shoulder, and then spoke quietly.

Doctor: Well, let's see what we can see.

With that, he walked up to the void, and pausing only for a moment, stepped through, only to be swallowed by the blackness. Leela paused for a moment, then swallowed and crossed her fingers, and whispered to herself.

Leela: I'm coming to get you Fry, just hold on for me. I'll be with you soon, one way or another.

Saying that, she also stepped through, and the doors swung shut and faded away, leaving nothing to show that they'd ever existed.

The first thing that all four of them noticed when the doors had closed behind them, was the complete absence of light. This was literally a place were they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. Fry didn't mind the dark so much as just the feeling of aloneness that he'd developed while standing there, a feeling rapidly turning into fear now, as he had started to worry that moving would bring him to something that he'd regret later on. What was strange was that his other senses were deadened; he couldn't make out any sounds., and he felt neither hot nor cold. The Doctor's Leela had been right beside him when they'd walked in, but now, he couldn't feel anyone at all. It was worse than nights when he'd been alone at home, when his parents had gone out and Yancy was out somewhere as well, and Fry had cried himself to sleep with loneliness. He hated to feel like this, it was why he'd been so happy to meet Leela, Bender, Amy and the others; he'd felt like he finally belonged, not like his old life. He sighed, then started walking, taking small tentative steps, arms outstretched. Surely his friend was in here somewhere.

As Fry slowly made his way through the room, the Doctor's Leela was trying to find her way around as well. She had all of her senses at hyper-alert, yet she still couldn't make out where she was, her inner locator was simply not working. She settled down in a crouch for a moment, and grinned ruefully; she'd not felt like this in ages. While a little afraid, she was also exhilarated. This was something she'd missed ever since she had gotten married and found her true calling on Gallifrey. Not that she would have traded her time there for anything, but Gallifrey was still, Gallifrey. Things hardly ever changed there, in fact, things only seemed to get exciting when the Doctor dropped by for an infrequent visit. She smiled a little more warmly. When the Doctor stopped by; things were more likely to go to hell than anything else. Still, he'd made her life more exciting than she'd ever thought possible.

If not for him, then she may well have ended up dead on her home planet, killed in the experiment that that insane computer Xoanon had been conducting. She mentally made a note to herself, that maybe she would go back to her home world someday, just to see what had changed. That is, if she got through this latest adventure with the Doctor. Leela rolled her eyes for a moment, then chuckled. At least there weren't any giant rats this time around.

Fry's Leela had gotten into self-defense mode as soon as she'd walked through the door. Not only was she unable to see the Doctor anymore, but she couldn't see anything at all, and she hated that feeling. Hated not being able to see, not being able to feel anyone around her, especially with her childhood memories. She shook her head violently. Damn it, why couldn't she shake those off? They seemed to always be right there, perched on her shoulder, always whispering to her, telling her how she was worthless, useless, unloved. Leela frowned for a moment. Useless, who was a spaceship captain, worthless, she'd saved the Earth more times than she could remember, as well as the lives of her friends and coworkers, and unloved? Her love, her true love, was somewhere in this maze. Leela stood and mused for a moment; true love, had she ever thought that she'd find that? For the longest time, it'd felt like it wasn't going to happen, and yet, her true love had been waiting for her for 1000 years. She smiled to herself; Fry had always been there, waiting in his cryo-tube, for that moment to wake up, even though when he had, she'd not recognized him for what he was. Yet, there had always been something about him, something different from any of the other guys that she'd known. Fry had definitely not been the sharpest knife in the drawer, he still wasn't, and yet, he'd done more for her than she'd ever thought any man was capable of doing. She smiled grimly, all self-defense again. All she had to do now, was get out of here, find Fry, and then just go the hell home. Let someone else save the universe, it was time for her to live her life, and Fry was gonna live it with her, or she'd break his jaw for even questioning it. Leela paused for a second, where the hell had that come from? She shook her head softly, and continued to try to find her way.

The Doctor sat on the floor, using the position the old master had taught him so very long ago, before he'd even started to think of leaving home. He meditated, trying to get his thoughts into some kind of order. The Toymaker was definitely up to something, and this room was a part of it, but what the trap was to be, he was unsure for the moment. He sighed, remembering what the Nibblonian had said about being tired, he could definitely relate to those words. The Doctor had become more tired as the years wore on him like a coat of lead. Had he been able to really help anyone in the larger scheme of things, or was he simply running from place to place, trying to put a patch on the ruptured areas of the universe, when in reality, the patient needed a major transfusion and operation? He thought back to when he'd decided to use his seventh incarnation to make major changes in the universe. He'd succeeded, in a way, he'd destroyed whole worlds and races, but that had just become as large a failure as everything else had. He'd affected the time-stream somewhat, but in the end, had he made a huge difference, had he made the really tough decisions? No, he hadn't, but he knew that he'd never have the will to do that, not completely, maybe because when you started to make those kinds of decisions, then there was no going back. Maybe he was just becoming an anachronism, and old fogy who was trying to effect change when the universe didn't really need it. Maybe, he was becoming as useless as he'd been feeling for the last three centuries. Maybe, it was time, time for him to give up the fight, and just…what? He wasn't sure, but knew that the answer was right there for him, just out of reach. He nodded to himself, the answer would pop up when he needed it, and it always did.

As the four of them pondered their individual predicaments, each of them suddenly heard a voice that came from all around. The Toymaker had definitely returned.

Toymaker's voice: Ah, my dear friends and fellow game players, I suppose that you have wondered for some time where you are, and what is the purpose of your being here. Well, wonder no more, for now the next stage of the game begins. I said that the Cybermen would have a more physical confrontation, and so they have. You on the other hand are to have a more…emotional challenge. All you have to do is not scream, and you will win, yet, if you do scream then you will join me in my Toyshop, and there, you will be with me, until you play another game, and possibly win your freedom. Now, doesn't this sound like fun? I'm sure you'll get quite a thrill out of it, so without further ado, let the next stage of our little adventure begin.

With that, the voice drifted away, and then the four, each unaware of the other, noticed that the room was changing somehow, even though it was still dark. It appeared to be…folding around them, wrapping them in their own little cocoon, and yet, not giving them a feeling of entrapment. Fry turned to his right, was that a light? Maybe his Leela was there, or the other Leela, or the Doc. Hell, he'd have been happy if it was just Nibbler, eating a goat or something. He turned to the light and walked towards it, not knowing that the other three had experienced the same thing and had started to move toward their own lights. As he got closer, he saw that the light was forming into something, but what…?

Philip J. Fry 

Voice: Philip J. Fry! Get down here, right now! I've got to get to work, and you've got to get down and make sure that your dad's bag is changed. Hurry it up, I don't have all day!

Fry: Mom?

He looked around, and then it struck him, he was back in his old room, back in…Old New York? This wasn't possible, he'd just been in a dark room, where was Leela, no this was just one of those halluci, hallici, mirage things, this was just something…? No, he was married to the most beautiful woman in the universe, he had two beautiful children, Hilary and David, and he lived in the 30th century. He was a friend with a robot named Bender; his nephew was named, named…Farnsworth!

Fry: (To himself) I know that's true, I know it, right?

Fry's mother: Fry, hurry up, you've got to give your dad his sponge bath, and then take Yancy Jr. out for his walk in the park.

Fry: Yancy's got to go for a walk in the park, and I've got to help him? Since when do I do that, Mom?

Fry's mother: Since they went out two years ago and had that accident! Since you were too stupid to finish up working on the car like you'd promised, and didn't put the brake fluid in like you said you were going to do. Since it's your fault that your father ended up a cripple, and your brother Yancy is brain-damaged! Because of you Fry, ALL BECAUSE OF YOU! WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST DIE BEFORE YOU WERE EVEN BORN? Things would have been so much simpler, for all of us, you stupid…

Fry's mother turned around and stalked off, leaving Fry in tears, and wondering how much worse his life would get, when his mother came back in the door, and looked at him for a moment.

Fry's mother: (Harshly) Oh yeah Fry, you've got to pick up your tux for the wedding Saturday.

Fry: Why, who do I know that's getting married, mom?

Fry's mother: (Rolling her eyes) Michelle, remember, you introduced her to that Panucci guy a little while back when you were dating, and you…God, how stupid are you? Sometimes I think Yancy has got more active brain cells than you!

Fry felt the tears come back anew, and he hung his head for a moment, before looking up at the ceiling.

Fry: This can't be, this isn't right, Leela, where are you? I know I loved you, this can't be happening, it can't be, NO IT JUST ISN'T FAIR! DAMN IT TO HELL, NOOOOO!

As Fry's scream echoed around him, he fell to the ground weeping, unaware of a pair of watching eyes. They had narrowed, and were now looking upon him with a curious type of pity.

Toymaker: (Smiling) Well, that's one down, only three to go, now, who's next?

Leela, of the Sevateem 

Leela's warrior senses were fully active now. This "Toymaker" was a devious being, probably more so than the Doctor himself, whom she knew to be quite tricky indeed, when the time called for it. The light ahead of her was resolving into a new shape, but what was it becoming…?

Leela sucked her breath in sharply; this couldn't be, could it? She actually felt like she was going to faint, and she _never_ fainted. She would have taken a Janus thorn to anyone who ever accused her of something like that, but, this was…Andred?

Her former husband of seventy-eight years turned towards her, that same gentle grin on his face, the one that always made him look so goofy yet endearing. She started to run to him, intending to give him the biggest kiss ever, but pulled up short. He _had_ died during the Dalek invasion of time, she knew it, this must be the Toymaker's illusion, and it simply had to be! Andred was…dead, but right now, here he was, and she just didn't care. He was _her_ husband, and damn it, she wanted him, even if it was only an illusion, even if it was just for a moment, she was with her love again.

Leela: Andred, I've missed you so much, you can't believe how much I missed you.

Andred: I know my dear, and I missed you too, there was always something that I wanted to tell you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry that I was stupid enough to get myself killed by those idiotic pepper pots, I never had a chance to tell you my final thoughts. I wanted you to know that I loved you so much, and that I was so proud of you. You saved almost everyone on Gallifrey, well, except me of course.

Leela: Andred, I, I tried to save you, I didn't even now you were in danger, until it was too late for me to...

Andred: (Leaning into her) My wild savage, tell me something, did you miss me? Or did the Doctor comfort you on those lonely cold nights?

Leela jerked back with such force that a bystander would have thought she'd been slapped, which for her at the moment, was close to the truth.

Leela: Andred, no! The Doctor is my friend, and a wonderful companion. He helped me to actually experience the universe for the first time, and showed me my ancestors, as well as leading me into a world I knew nothing about.

Andred looked at her accusingly for a moment, then walked over to her and got close to her face again.

Andred: Leela, please don't lie to me, you're not very good at it at all. I remembered when you came to Gallifrey, with_ him_. You were star struck, weren't you?

As he spoke, he seemed to metamorphose into another figure for a moment, and then the Doctor was standing there, not the current incarnation, but the one she'd met so many years ago. She couldn't help but smile at the sight. He with his curly mop-top, that mouthful of teeth that always seemed to be on the verge of breaking free, and that scarf, all 30 feet of it, that he always managed to keep in some kind of order around him. As he stood there, he spoke to her, in Andred's voice.

Doctor/Andred: You don't think that I didn't know you had a crush on him? The only reason you left him to be with me was because you knew you'd never have him. He'd never be able to reciprocate the feelings you had, because the Doctor is an _alien_, and even to his own people, he's different, an outcast, and a freak. A meddling busybody, who doesn't know when to leave things well enough alone! You think he knows what he's doing, Ha! he doesn't even know himself. He simply bungles into one situation or another, and then waltzes out when he thinks he's been there long enough. You know that, I know it, even the Doctor knows it, he's simply too proud to admit it to himself, let alone anyone else.

Leela gaped at Andred, furious and yet saddened as well, he didn't know the Doctor like she did, he'd been the one to petition her being loomed, the one who had allowed her to accompany him to Gallifrey, and the one who had subtly pushed her towards Andred…?

Leela: No, the Doctor is a good man, someone who cares about all life, and will try never to harm anyone if he can.

The Doctor smiled for a moment, and then reverted back to Andred's form.

Andred: Ha! The Doctor cares about all life, you should ask some of his enemies if they believe that. The Sontarans call him the Grand Admiral, because of all the defeats he's handed them, the Ice Warriors know him as the Great Flame, and the Daleks, they hate and fear him most of all. Do you know what they call him in Dalekenese; they know him as the _Ka Faraq Gatri, _which means he who brings Death, the Destroyer of Worlds. The Doctor is an evil being who uses you and all of his companions for his own purposes, and you continued to follow him blindly, when you know that he will never return your feelings for him.

Leela: (Near tears) No, the Doctor has done the best that he can, and how dare you sympathize with the Daleks, when they were the ones that killed you. You are not the Andred that I knew, you are a phantasm, an illusion, a…

Leela stopped as the "illusion" reached over and roughly grabbed her arms. His grip was real enough, but it was impossible, wasn't it?

Andred: Leela, if you persist in your idiotic worship, then you will eventually fall like all others that have fallen before him. If you don't believe me, then ask him, he's right there.

Leela looked to where Andred was pointing, and indeed, the Doctor in his current incarnation was standing there, with an inscrutable look on his face, one that made her think that he was looking at a bug.

Leela: Doctor! Help me, we must escape from whatever the Toymaker has done to us, we must get away, before we fall deeper into his trap.

Doctor: Leela, why have I wasted my time with you all these years? I would have been better off training a monkey, than watching you act the fool. You have been one of the biggest disappointments it has been my displeasure to know. All of those monkeys from Earth, they have been such…failures. Why have I stood around them for so long, I don't know, when they have continued to kill each other over petty problems of ignorance, stupidity, and greed?

Leela: (Shocked) Doctor, you don't mean that, you can't… it's not in your nature.

Doctor: You have no idea what my nature is, savage. Even as a pretend Gallifreyan, you have no clue as to my true identity; I am more than anyone in this universe has ever had the honor of meeting. And you, you are…nothing. I feel no pity for you, because I know what my destiny is. I will lead, and my warriors will control, and the universe will be the better for it.

Leela: What, what warriors are you…?

She stopped as the Doctor stood aside, and familiar pepper pot shapes began to materialize around them all. Leela looked up at the Doctor, and the smile on his face was terrible, because it was full of glee, and she knew then, that the Doctor was lost to her, maybe forever. But, she growled to herself, _I won't be the only one to be lost_, and she reached down to pull her knife from her boot, the trusty hunting knife that had been her good luck charm for years. She stood up and rushed the Doctor, only to have him wheel on her suddenly, and she found herself on the ground, with the Doctor holding her knife, along with one of her fingers as well. She flinched back as he crouched down before her and grabbed a handful of her hair.

Doctor: Leela, Leela, Leela, I will miss you, you know. Well, not really, but I suppose that is what humans are supposed to say in cases like this.

Andred: Leela, I tried to tell you the truth, and you simply refused to listen to me, now it's too late, and…

Doctor: Oh shut him up would you!

Dalek: I obey!

Leela cried out loud, as the cyborg turned on her former love and burned him down. The last thing that she recognized of him was that familiar goofy smile, just before his face melted away. He fell roughly to the ground. She turned back to the Doctor, who stood in front of her now, and had that terrible grin back on his face.

Doctor: Such a disappointment. Finish her off, and then join me with your compatriots, on the plains of Vendalia. We have work to do, and the universe waits.

Dalek: I obey, master!

The Doctor turned on his heel, and started to walk away, while Leela sobbed on the ground before the cybernetic killer.

Dalek: You are an enemy of the Doctor, and must be exterminated! Exterminate! EXTERMINATE! EX-TER-MI-NATE!

As Leela felt the heat and energy from the blast envelop her, the pain was more than she'd ever felt, possibly only matched by the pain her heart felt at the Doctor's betrayal. The scream she let out was louder than the fatal disintegration blast, and the full hatred and sadness that she felt was something that would never be matched by anything else again. Then there was nothingness.

The Toymaker grinned happily and clapped his hands.

Toymaker: Splendid, simply splendid! She held out much longer than I expected, though it _was_ inevitable. Now, let's see what this other Leela fears.

With that said, he turned back to a screen, and watched as Leela continued her journey into darkness.

Turanga Leela 

Leela walked towards the light, her senses on full alert. She frowned to herself; she'd had enough of this game. The Doctor had some interesting enemies, that was for sure, but not interesting enough that she wanted to stick around. All she had to do was not scream, the Toymaker had whispered. Well, she was Turanga Leela, damn it, and she didn't get to where she was now by being a squealing girlie-girl. _Let's see what's so bad that that jerk thinks I'll scream_, and with that thought, she entered the light. The next thing she knew, she was lying flat on her back, and appeared to be in some sort of… restraints?

Leela: What the hell's going on around here, let me up, now!

She started to struggle against the restraints, but was unable to gain enough leverage to be able to move more than an inch. An icicle went through her heart as she heard an all too familiar voice, and she craned her head around, hoping against hope that it wasn't really the person she knew it belong to.

Zapp: Well, if it isn't my sexilicious star-ship captain! My, you look as delectable as ever, though I hope you aren't too cold in that.

Leela was puzzled for a moment, then looked down to see that she was wearing a flimsy hospital gown. She looked back up at Zapp, who continued to pace in front of her; his arms behind his back, looking every bit like the heroic image of the Space captain that he supposedly was. He stopped beside her bed, then leant down and came level with her head, staring intently into her eyes for a moment.

Zapp: Oh, my lovely angel of lust, the beautiful siren of space, Captain Turanga Leela, you know, we were made for each other. I'm a captain, you're a captain, and we should spend all of our days with one another. You making sure that my fabulous velour uniform looks nice, and me being able to come home every night, satisfying your every wanton desire.

Leela smirked at him for a moment, then turned her head away, determined to not to give him any benefit of the doubt.

Leela: Well Zapp, as small as you are, I doubt you'd be able to satisfy an ant's desires, let alone mine. You know I've already met my true love, and that I'm only here in order to find him. Anyway, I thought that the Cybermen, uh, _converted_ you. Haven't they finished the job yet?

Zapp: Oh, they will soon do so my love, but my desire for you meant that I had to see you one more time, and that meant cheating for a bit. But I'm sure that the Toymaker will make it up to me.

Leela: (Perking up) The Toymaker? So you know what's going on here?

Zapp: Of course, and I gratefully volunteered to help him, if it would allow me to be with you for just a little longer. Now, all we have to do is take care of a few inconveniences, and then we can be with each other for eternity.

Leela: Forget it Zapp, I'm not going anywhere with you, so why don't you just drop it? There's no way I'll ever be stupid enough to fall for your act again, so why don't you just drop it? Go back to Amazonia or something.

Zapp: Ah my sweet chocolate cake of sensuousness, you know that I'll never leave you alone, now why don't we just take care of a few things, and…

Leela: (Starting to panic) Take care of what Zapp?

Zapp: Well, the first thing we did was to remove the hairball, you know, he was a bore anyway.

Leela: Fry? If you've hurt or…

Zapp: Killed him? No, of course, that would simply be a waste of resources, just like your own death would be. Instead, it's better this way, Leela, there's no pain, no illness, and you realize your place in the universe. Just like I have.

As Leela stared in horror, Zapp moved his arms from behind his back, and she again saw the cybernetic prostheses that had taken the place of his real arms. He placed a metal hand against her face, and she shivered.

Zapp: Don't be afraid, this is for the best, you know, and I think that after you get a taste of the power I received, you'll thank me for it later.

Leela: Don't be so smug, Zapp, you don't think that I'll ever willingly go with you anywhere, do you?

Zapp: In time, you will learn to appreciate what I do for you, including this.

Leela gaped in horror, as Zapp held up a medical instrument and walked around to stand in front of her.

Zapp: Now, while there may be some momentary discomfort, it'll all be over soon, and then you and I can start our new life together, without any part of Fry having to be around you again.

As he started to move towards her, she closed her eye, and flinched when the cold instrument touched her.

Leela: (Thinking) No, I won't scream, this is just a trick, I'm not going to scream, I won't! Fry I love you! Always know that I love you Fry!

Leela bit the inside of her mouth, and then…the sensation that she'd felt a moment ago vanished. She warily opened her eye, and saw that Zapp had disappeared though she still rested on the same table as before. Then suddenly, the table was stood upright, and Leela found herself moving backwards, only to come to a sudden stop. She desperately tried to move from the restraints that held her, only to halt when two Cybermen appeared in front of her.

Cybermen 1: The Earthling female is a mutation, though it does posses great physical strength. If allowances can be made for it deficits, then it will make an excellent soldier.

Cybermen 2: Agreed. Begin the upgrade.

Leela stared at the two creatures, which continued to stare at her as if she was an insect on a tray. The next thing she heard was a high-pitched whine, and then she saw that there were more medical instruments coming towards her.

Leela: (Thinking) What the hell is going on here, what do they mean by "upgrade"…oh no! No, I don't want this to happen, Fry, if you can hear me, please help me, someone, anyone, please? I don't want to be like these things, I just want to live a nice life with the man I fell in love with, watch our children grow up, and just…please, somebody help me!

Leela gasped as she saw the needle-like object that came around and centered in front of her face. She tried to shrink from it as it slowly approached her eye.

Leela: No, I don't want this, somebody, anybody, Fry, Doctor, Leela, ZAPP, someone, please help me, I don't want to lose me, I don't want to lose myself, please, anyone, help me! Help Me! Oh GOD, somebody help meeee!

Leela had closed her eyes, but when she felt the soft push of the needle against her eye, the scream that had been trying to find its way out of her for the last few minutes, finally did. The sound was like a mournful whistle, and even as she screamed her head off, the Toymaker sat in his chair and nodded his head slowly.

Toymaker: And then there was one. Now Doctor, it's time for me to revisit upon you every loss, every defeat, everything that you've ever failed at, and I will break you, oh yes, and you will be mine!.

The Doctor 

. He expected something very bad in the light ahead, but the Doctor continued to walk forward. As he entered it, he heard a voice in his call out.

Voice: Time-lord! Doctor; do not enter, for danger awaits you!

Doctor: Of course there is. I wouldn't have expected otherwise.

The Doctor entered and then…

Doctor: I must get the controls working again, I must save Adric! Make sure that both of them are dead; Tegan, Nyssa, hand me my tool-kit, hurry! I have to hurry if we're going to get him…

The Doctor stopped for a moment, where was this? Who was he? He looked down at himself, and saw that he was wearing his own familiar clothes, the same ones he'd picked out centuries ago. The situation seemed familiar, and yet, it was different as well. What was strange about it? Oh yes, I said 'Adric'. Adric… no, that wasn't possible. He had died, long ago in his personal history, when the space freighter he was trapped on had hit the Earth some 65 million years ago, causing the dinosaur extinction. He looked again at his surroundings, and saw that…he was in the console room as it had been back then. The wall were the same creamy white, with roundels all over it, and the console was the older style that he'd preferred in those days, but why was there smoke coming from it?

Doctor: No, the Toymaker has reached into my mind, and pulled this day out from it, but I know that there's nothing I can do, and so, while I may feel guilty about it, I can't stop it. Tegan, Nyssa; I'm sorry, there was nothing I could…do?

The Doctor had turned around, looking for his other two companions from that time: Tegan, the Australian stewardess, and Nyssa of Traken, but neither was there.

Doctor: Tegan? Nyssa? Now where did they go off to, they were here just a moment ago.

A moment later, the Doctor heard a faint crackling noise from the far side of the room. He walked over, continuing to make adjustments to the console, trying desperately to get it working again. He stared at the spot where the Cyberleader had fallen, and seeing nothing, turned towards where the Lieutenant lay. He heard the crackling again, and saw a small transmitter lying on the floor. Picking it up, he stared at it for a moment; he'd thought the Leader had crushed it. The crackle resolved into a voice, coming through the radio.

Transmitter: …can you…us…tor? Please, the Cyber…holdin…on freighter! Lieutenant Scott…Adric trying…can't change course! Doctor, can you hear us, we're on the freighter and, oh rabbits!

The Doctor stood in shock for a moment. What the devil was Tegan doing on the freighter? Adric was the one that the Leader had made him leave behind. Tegan and Nyssa had accompanied him, along with the Leader and his Lieutenant. In fact, it'd only been with Tegan and Nyssa's help that they'd managed to beat them, even though the console had been damaged in the fight. He had always cursed that day, when he'd let repairs on the TARDIS lapse. It was one of the reasons he was fairly regular in his repair work from that point forward. Still, this wasn't how he'd remembered it. Was it?

Doctor: Tegan, what are you doing on the freighter? Is Nyssa with you, along with Adric?

Tegan: Doctor! The controls are shot, and we can't change course. You've to help us, please!

Doctor: I'm doing my best, Tegan; the Cybermen have damaged the controls severely, and I'm having trouble getting the TARDIS to respond.

Nyssa: Doctor, please, we've only got a few minutes till we hit the Earth's atmosphere!

The Doctor glanced at the old view-screen. Actually, it was less than a minute until the freighter would impact upon the planet's surface. That explosion would end up causing the extinction of the dinosaurs, and the beginning of a new era on the Earth. The Doctor desperately tried to get the console operational, finally hammering on it with his fists.

Doctor: Come on, you have to work, I've got to save them, I let Adric die before, but maybe I can make things happen differently this time! I must!

The Doctor looked at the screen again in despair; the freighter had already entered the atmosphere, and was only moments away from impacting on the surface.

Tegan: Doctor, help us please! Don't let us die, please help us! Doctor!

The Doctor stood at the console, gripping it fiercely with his hands, as he saw the freighter impact. The cloud from the antimatter detonation must have risen upwards for miles. He closed his eyes, trying to hold back the tears, then turned back to the screen.

Doctor: Is that the best you can do, Toymaker? I've been through worse, you know.

The screen suddenly blanked out and darkness returned, only to be replaced in another moment by…

Doctor: Greel!

The Doctor paused, then looked down at himself again. He was clothed in Edwardian garb, a deerstalker, and he was definitely underground. What was this in his hand, a hatchet? What was he doing with a hatchet, and who was bumping into him from behind?

Man: I say Doctor, we'd better hurry if we're to stop this fellow Greel, Weng Chiang or whatever his name is, he has your companion, Miss Leela, you know!

The memories flooded back. Jago and Lightfoot, the two men who had helped him fight Magnus Greel, the 50th century villain who'd escaped in time back to 19th century China. Greel had eventually made his way to London, looking for his time-cabinet. Leela was trapped in his molecular absorption device, basically a cannibalism machine, except, and as he'd wryly told the men, it kept Greel from having to chew on the gristle. The Doctor dashed forward, and they ran into the chamber. Even as Greel was starting the machine, Leela was still spitting her defiance at him.

Greel: Let the talons of Weng Chiang, shred your fleeeesh!

Doctor: Greel!

The Doctor remembered the hatchet in his hand, and without hesitation lifted it and threw it as hard as he could, at Greel's control console. It flashed through the air, but just before it made contact, it was suddenly hit by a coruscating beam and disintegrated. The Doctor gaped for a moment, then turned and looked up at the dragon's head with the glowing eyes; that damn puppet with the pig's brain, Mr. Sin, must have been at the controls. At that moment he heard a scream from the box, and saw Leela, now motionless, her features slowly crumbling into dust.

Doctor: Leela, no, this can't be, it's not how it happened!

Greel cackled insanely, then turned to his time cabinet. The Doctor started towards him, when the light ray flashed directly before him, and he and the others ducked behind an overturned desk.

Greel: Now Doctor, I shall show the world the brilliance of Magnus Greel! I shall return in my cabinet to the 50th century, and rule all!

Doctor: Greel, listen to me. The cabinet was a failure; you're just as liable to create a rift in time that'll be impossible to heal! Greel, listen to me!

Greel: No Doctor, it was a success, a magnificent, glorious success!

The Doctor stood up sharply, determined that he would stop this madman, only to see the door to the cabinet close, and saw it activate. It glowed for a moment, and then the explosion that followed was terrible to behold. The Doctor stood transfixed, seeing everything in slow motion as the explosion came towards him. Lightfoot and Jago tried to run, and Mr. Sin laded on his back. The Doctor didn't really feel the knife, only a moment of pain, then fell to his knees as the explosion reached him. The Doctor closed his eyes. He wanted to scream against the unjustness of it all, he wanted to…The Doctor blinked his eyes for a moment, then took in a deep shuddering breath.

Doctor: No, it won't work, Toymaker! I'm not going to let you take me as well as the others; you may as well let us go now.

In his Toyshop, the Toymaker leaned forward in his chair, eyeing the Doctor on his own view-screen.

Toymaker: Very good, Doctor, but let's see what happens when you go back to a time when you let a whole Earth be destroyed.

The Doctor stood stock-still for a moment, then noticed the view beginning to change again, and braced himself mentally for whatever might come next.

Doctor: Hurry up, we've got to get to my console!

The Doctor quickly glanced down at his clothes; smoking jacket, lace shirt, his third incarnation, so where was he?

Doctor: Oh no, not here, not this time and place.

The Doctor looked up to see a river of lava bearing down on him, and immediately knew where he was. This was an alternate timeline, one he'd accidentally been sent to when exiled to Earth so many years ago. He'd tried to get his TARDIS working in those years, and had been sent across to another Earth, one that existed a few hours ahead of the one he came from. On that Earth, a drilling project that was supposed to find a new source of limitless energy for the planet had turned into a disaster, and had ended up causing the planet to crack itself open like an egg. He'd only just managed to escape, before the final fires destroyed that world, and made it back to his correct timeline and stopped the same drilling going on there. Still, it'd left him with one of his biggest fears, a near phobia, that of burning alive; It had caused his third persona problems more than once. And now also; his old fears came welling back in a rush, and he knew that this was going to be trouble.

Woman's voice: Doctor, get out of here, go now!

The Doctor looked up. It was the parallel version of his companion, Liz Shaw. She was desperately holding onto that drilling expert, what was his name, Greg something-or-other? The Doctor looked down at the console, and flipped the switch which would command the TARDIS to return him to his Earth.

Nothing happened.

He flipped the switch again, and still nothing happened.

Liz: Doctor, get going man, you have to hurry if you're going to save your world!

Doctor: Liz, I'm doing my best, but it seems like nothing's working right! I can't get the TARDIS to respond as it should!

Liz: Doctor, hurry, you have to…eyaahh!

The lava had caught up to the two humans, and Liz screamed shrilly for a moment, before the lava rolled over her and she was mercifully finished. The Doctor stood wild-eyed for a moment longer, then following his own instinct for survival, took off running, only to find that the lava was all around him and he had nowhere to go. The instant before it finally engulfed him, he wished that he hadn't been so stubborn sometimes, and that he'd appreciated the friends that he had. Then the molten lava struck, and the Doctor gritted his teeth at the pain.

Doctor: (Thinking) Must not scream, must fight, this is an illusion, I deny this reality, I deny this feeling, it's only in my mind, THE PAIN!

Just as he was ready to let go, he heard a voice in his head.

Nibbler: (Mentally) Time Lord, you must fight the pain, it is all illusion, it is not real!

Doctor: (Mentally) I know that, but the Toymaker is breaking down my defenses, I can't resist for much longer.

Nibbler: You must, the Fry brain is under your protection, you must fight!

Doctor: I understand, but…I can't fight it but for a little while more, and it seems that the Toymaker is more powerful than I remembered. He's going to win, unless I take drastic measures!

Nibbler: What do you mean, what measures?

Doctor: Time Lords have the ability to shut themselves down, both physically and mentally, when their bodies are under great strain, and I may be able to gain the others their own respite, gain us a moment to think, and plan!

Unfortunately, there is some danger with this, and I may have some small difficulty, after all my current body is wearing a bit thin these days. Here goes nothing and everything!

With that, the Doctor closed his eyes, shut out the pain from his screaming nerve endings for just a moment more, and concentrated. He visualized the inside of his body, moving through the muscle layer, down into the internal organs, and finally, a view of his right side heart, which was beating wildly now with adrenaline. He visualized a hand that closed around the heart, smoothly stroking it for a moment, and then squeezing it as hard as it could, only to let it go a second later. The heart started to beat wildly out of rhythm, and the Doctor understood this was going to be bad. A few moments later he felt his chest rocked with pain, and found that he couldn't breathe at all. He fell down on his knee, then plopped unceremoniously onto his back, his breath coming in short gasps.

Doctor: (Mentally) Oh dear, I may have miscalculated.

The Toymaker sat bolt upright for a moment, staring at the Doctor writhing on the floor, in the throes of an apparent heart attack.

Toymaker: No! What have you done, Doctor? I will not be cheated this way; my compatriots will not be cheated this way!

He stood up and glided off to the Doctor's location.

The Doctor had grown very still, and there was a bluish tint to his lips. Fry, Leela, and Leela had came out of their own trances, and were sitting, simply catching their breath, when the Doctor's Leela turned around and saw the Doctor lying on the floor.

Doctor's Leela: Doctor! Oh no, what has he done to you?

She ran over to him, kneeling down and, feeling for a pulse, detected a thready double one. Fry and his wife ran over as well, though neither of them knew what could help him.

Doctor's Leela: Doctor, come on and get up, you have to, so we can all leave together, get up, please!

Doctor: (Whispering) Leela, take the others and get ready to leave. The Toymaker made the rules of the game: if one of us fails to make it, then he has to let the others go, and since its me, I'm sure he'll live up to it. I'm whom he wanted, and without me, anything he'd try to inflict on the rest of you would be hollow at best. Go to the TARDIS, she knows how to get you home.

Doctor's Leela: Damn you Doctor, I will not leave you here, if nothing else, then regenerate into a new body.

Doctor: Can't do it, I've had an unfortunate side effect of my plan, one I didn't count on. It appears that I've had a massive stroke, in the part of my brain that controls regeneration. Couldn't regenerate now if I wanted to, not enough time for that part to heal. I've always been proud of you Leela, tell K-9 that I'm sorry I couldn't come back to de-bug him, sorry for not having been a better friend to so many over the years, sorry for not…

The Doctor fell silent, and Leela stared down at him. He was breathing, but only shallowly.

Fry's Leela: Isn't there anything that could help him?

Doctor's Leela: The Elixir of Life could, but we're nowhere near Karn, and the Toymaker wouldn't let us go anyway. Damn it Doctor, don't do this to me, I…I love you too much to let you go now.

Fry and Leela turned away from the scene for a moment as the Doctor's companion buried her face in his chest, tears flowing freely.

Then he stood up. What was all the fuss about? It was only a few seconds later when he turned and stared down at his body lying on the ground, with his companion crying over him, and his two new Earth friends turning away from the scene. The Doctor mused on this for a second, and then squatted down beside his Leela.

Doctor: Leela, I'm sorry about this, I'm sorry that things haven't turned out the way that we wanted then to sometimes, but I've always been proud of you my dear.

He turned his head sharply at the touch of a hand on his own shoulder. He craned his head upwards, to see…one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen in his lifetimes. She wore a light green dress, and had a milky-white complexion, with raven-colored tresses that hung down to the middle of her back. She held her hand out, and the Doctor accepted it a moment later.

Woman: Hello Doctor, it's been a long time hasn't it, and this looks like the final time for you, I'm afraid. I have been looking forward to seeing you again.

Doctor: I'm afraid you have the advantage on me, milady.

Woman: (Giggling) Let's just say that we're old friends, you and I, and this appearance is of a companion long gone now, one that you've forgotten over the years, but one you could have given your hearts to easily, if you had let yourself. You met her at the beginning of this incarnation you know.

Doctor: (Eyes wide) I remember now, I can't believe that I forgot so easily.

Woman: It's all right Doctor, I can say that she forgave you, and she's here with me, and you can visit her whenever you want to do so. Still, I must ask that you do me a favor first.

Doctor: (Standing up) I will do what I can to help anyone that I can, including you. I know who you are now. Tell me something, milady, I hope you don't hold things against me.

Woman: Doctor, I'm never one to hold a grudge, you know that. Still, I do require something from you, that only you can give me.

Doctor: Name it then.

Woman: I require a dance with you, Doctor. Just as you have danced with my sisters Time and Luck over the years, so I have required a dance with each of your other incarnations, when they have come to meet me, and those dances have always been too sweet, and yet, too short. It's time that you and I had a proper dance. I've been waiting for this a long time, my love. Shall we?

She held out her arm, and the Doctor, after a moment's hesitation, took it in his own, and the two started to walk away together. The Doctor hesitated for a moment, turning back to look at his current companions.

Doctor: Will they be all right? Will the Toymaker harm them?

Woman: Do not concern yourself with them Doctor, you owe me a dance, remember?

The woman tugged on the Doctor's arm, and he continued to walk with her, towards what looked like a grand ballroom, though he continued to glance back.

Doctor: I wonder…

At the instant the Doctor said those words, the body on the floor, that had previously housed his consciousness, ceased breathing altogether. Leela lifter her head from the Doctor's chest, and looked down upon him, her voice warm, and tinged with sadness.

Doctor's Leela: He's dead.

To be continued

Well, how was that for a cliffhanger, the Doctor's dead, Fry, Leela and Leela are still trapped in the Toyshop, there's Cybermen, Daleks and a Toymaker flitting around, oh my! Many thanks to my beta, David, who has been a great help to me over the last year, not only with my stories, but with helping me through some tough times in my personal life, which I guess is where the darker parts of this story came from. Also thanks go out to my good PEEL buddy, FuturamaHil, and all of the help, confidence building and editorial work that she's done for me, and to Graham, Teral, and the other folks over at TLZ, for allowing me the opportunity to publish my stories there. Part six will be here when it's done, since I'm working on the fourth and final part of No More Fun and Games 2. As always, criticism is sought out, and I hope that lots comes my way. My email is still and I try to answer everyone that mails me; if I haven't I apologize for my mistake. The Doctor's bit about knowing's easy comes from a TV episode, "State of Decay", and here's another bit to go out on. "Never be certain of anything, it's a sign of weakness"-from the episode The Face of Evil, the first time that we get introduced to the Doctor's Leela. See you around.


End file.
